Nobody can be born evil nobody
by Lionheart1
Summary: *AU SQUINOA* Squall is born as a genetically modified being that has been created to kill, after he escapes he must try to lead a normal life in the city. Can he do this without his past coming back to haunt him !!*CHAPTER 15 UPDATE*!!
1. Chapter 1 Introduction

Authors note: Oh hello there! Would you like to hear a story? Well you've clicked on the right thing. ^_^ Okay I think I better lay off the cola at this early in the morning. 

Anyways, this is my first AU story so please be nice! Don't let it put you off because its my first AU, I've spent ages trying to plan it out. The first few chapters may be a bit boring cus this chapter and the next is basically introductions. 

Please review and tell what you think of it!

Disclaimer: I do not own Squaresoft or any of its characters used in the story.

Nobody can be born evil…nobody 

Chapter One

If you pick any plant or animal, they are all the same. They were all made by the same sort of reproductive system, all have a biological family. Imagine that something wasn't made from the same reproductive system, to put it simple, imagine scientists made them in a laboratory. Genetically modified beings. I suppose they would live a bit of a different life if they were needed for something, but wouldn't they still have feelings? Feel pain? Want a family and friends? 

If you could create such things, maybe what you create might not want to do exactly what its told and in the end might rebel. Would that make something evil? For doing something that it believes in, for having hope…

I am Squall Leonhart, at first glance you might think of me as an average person. Most people would, but there's a secret that I hide from the rest of the world that burns up inside me. It's not just me hiding the secret, there are others. 

If the people around me knew our secret, I don't think they'd even class us as being human. They'd instantly think of us as being evil, forgetting what they would have thought of us before. It's all because of how we were born into this world, its what we are.

Twenty years ago Balamb was on the verge of going to war. Balamb is only a small town and the only protection, a small army of local people, who have no experience or training for war. The government felt that the only solution they had left was to create the soldiers themselves, make killing machines. Scientists worked in a secret laboratory day and night trying to make these soldiers of their own. Finally after months of research they made there first few soldiers, they even looked identical to a human. Ten years passed by where they made these soldiers, young children being taught how to kill everyday of their lives. The oldest soldiers that were ten years of age started to develop their own personality and so decided what they did and didn't want to do. Then soldiers seemed to have decided that they didn't want to be treated like slaves. 

The workmen that trained them could no longer control them as they had been made to strong and some people got injured badly. 

We all gradually began to develop feelings and no one could control us because the scientists had made us mature to quickly. Nobody could do anything about it, their plan had failed. They set out to make extermination camps where we were to be sent to and killed. Not all of us were killed though, as few of us escaped by fighting our way out of this hell we were living in. Remembering about how they taught us how to kill our enemies.

Some people may call us mutants; it's the name we have developed. We are no longer respectfully called a soldier. People think of us as mutants, evil creatures that kill innocent people. It's not us that made it happen, its them. They made us who we are.

After we escaped we soon found that people did not want us, they were afraid. Some of us were killed because they found out who we really were. In the end we decided to split up and swore never to let anyone know the truth. It was just my older brother and me. He was a year older than me, his name, Seifer. We were all alone and had no place to go. 

We were adopted by two wonderful people, Raine and Laguna. They've cared for us ever since, though they have never known the truth about us and I doubt they ever will. The world isn't ready to know the truth.

All of this happened when I was just eight years old, ten years have past since then and I am now eighteen.

Why do people think we're evil? That I can't answer, its just what they were told by the government and they have kept that word in their minds ever since. I know I'm not evil, since the escape I have never hurt anyone; I'm even a doctor so I spend most of my days helping injured people.

I live my life as a normal person; no one must ever know the truth…

Authors note: What do you think? Review! Oh yeah since I share my account with my brother and it only has his email address on it. Mine is saz_uk90@hotmail.com so you can email me if you like. ^_^ review please!


	2. Chapter 2 A new beginning

Authors note: Sorry it has taken me so long to update but I've had my hands full with loads of damn schoolwork! A few of you have noticed that my story sounds a bit like dark angel, that's true, my story is a bit of a mixture between dark angel, Roswell and x-men all mixed in one big heap! ^_^  

Sorry if this chapter seems a bit boring and yes I know its really crappy but I'll try and make future chapters a lot more interesting, I promise! Please review and don't flame me cus yes I already know it's a load of rubbish!

Thank you and now I'll hand you over to chapter two of my story. ^_^

Chapter 2

The young woman watched as the scenery flew by her as she looked out of the train window. She hoped coming to Balamb was all worth it. One of her friends back in Deling City had told her that her ex-boyfriend was here. She thought back to when they used to be together. It was probably only a school crush; he wasn't exactly the nicest person in the world. In fact he was the school bully.

Back when she was at school everyone wanted to be friends with her. She knew that most of the reason was because she's quite rich and she lived in a mansion with her father. She hated it; she hated everything about it. She just wanted to be normal.

It had all started when she was around 15. She had started to hang around with the less popular people in the school. Strangely most of them felt incompatible around her or they were happy to her friend, but would start trying to be her. She really hated that.

There was one person who caught her eye though, he was a quiet person and he never seemed to have any friends. He had the most amazing ethereal eyes and a scar that went down his face. Lots of times she had tried to be friendly with him but he would either just ignore her or tell her to go away. She always wondered why he was so cold towards her but then she later discovered that he got bullied a lot at school.

She never really understood bullies; they'd go around in a group picking faults with everyone. It was pointless and noone like them because they were so horrible. That's when it happened…

It was lunchtime and as usual she would try to make friends with this one person. He was always at the same place, in the far back corner of the cafeteria. She walked up to him and sat down in a chair opposite.

"Hi again," she said as friendly as she could. He looked up at her and then went back to his food. 

Oh you're giving me the silent treatment again, are you?" She didn't know why but she really wanted to get to know him. She sighed and then said "Do you have a name then?"

He nodded his head. "Squall."

She smiled with a bit of relief that she had managed to get a word out of his mouth. "I'm Rinoa," she said holding out a hand. Squall put his hand out and shook it.

"So what do we have here then?" came a voice from behind them.  
Rinoa turned around to see someone with blond hair and green eyes; she even noticed a similar scar to Squalls. The next few weeks she seemed to notice this blond was interested in her. His name was Seifer. Eventually she forgot about Squall because she liked Seifer. He was one of the school bullies but she didn't mind. The way he acted to her was a totally different manner.

There was one thing she didn't understand. Seifer and Squall were brothers, but Seifer didn't act like it. It seemed Squall was one of Seifer's main victims for bullying.

Now she'd left school she had lost all contact with Seifer. One of her friends had said Seifer was a psychiatrist that worked at Balamb. Of course Rinoa just laughed when she heard that but her friend was being serious. That's what she had come to Balamb for and also she had wanted to get away from the city and settle down in a quiet town.

~*~*~*~*~

Squall awoke to the sound of his alarm clock; he quickly sat up and turned it off. He pulled himself from the soft bed and dragged himself wearily to the shower before getting dressed.

Squall and Seifer now lived together in a small house close to the sea. As teenagers they never sued to get on well but since Seifer had changed his life around and become a psychiatrist he had become a better person. 

Squall walked over to the fridge, finding a post-it stuck to it. As he got closer he could see it was a shopping list. Seifer somehow managed to always avoid doing the shopping so Squall was stuck doing it again. Squall grabbed it from the fridge and left the house. 

Since Squall and Seifer had arrived in Balamb they had discovered there were more mutants here, much the same as Squall and Seifer. Squall knew two others at the moment, although it was very difficult to tell who are mutants. The two mutants Squall knew were called Quistis and Zell. Quistis was Seifer's boyfriend and worked in a grocery shop. She was quite a nice person. Zell on the other hand was a hyperactive person, who was sometimes extremely annoying, although he could show a serious side as well. Overall Squall thought he was all right. Strangely enough when they were made they had all been given the same kinds of powers. All were telekinetic, as well as telepathic.

Squall entered the grocery store and gathered all the things he needed. The store was quieter than usual today. Squall stepped up to the counter to see a familiar face smiling at him.

"Hi Squall," she said.

"Hi Quistis," Squall said, taking my things as she started to place them in bags.

"Have you seen Seifer today?" she asked, as Squall handed her the money for my things.

"No I haven't, but I'm guessing at the moment he'll be hibernating somewhere in the midst of his room."

Quistis laughed at the comment, then said, "He always leaves you to do the shopping. Doesn't he want to see me or something?"

Squall shrugged his shoulders as he grabbed the shopping bags. "See you later." Squall said.

"Bye," she replied, as Squall turned to walk from the shop.

Squall decided that today he would visit Zell at his shop as no one was usually ever there. Zell owned a left-handed shop called 'Lefties Left Handed Shop'. Strangely enough Zell wasn't left-handed. Squall entered the small shop surprised to see that there were some customers there.

"Thank you for shopping at Lefties Left Handed Shop and I hope to see you very soon." Zell said proudly. Squall looked in amusement as the happy couple left. He waited for the door close, when it finally did Squall said, "You won't see them again."

Zell looked at Squall annoyed. "Hey Squall, have you seen this?" he said changing the subject quickly, as he shuffled around behind the counter, looking for something. Finally he pulled out a newspaper and laid it flat on the counter. It was just the same usual stuff about us. Ten years have passed and they're still going on about us. As Squall skimmed through the passage one word stood out from the rest.

"They're calling us pigs," Squall said.

"I know, don't they understand that pigs are people too?" Zell said in his usual drama like fashion.

"I don't understand it, though Squall, you spend everyday of your life saving people's lives," Zell said fiddling with the newspaper. "If only they knew the truth…if only." Zell said finishing dramatically.

"It's the way of the world. You can't change their view." Squall said.

"But what if you can? What if you could use your powers to save people?" Zell asked.

"Oh yeah…let's be superheroes." I said sarcastically.

Zell snapped his fingers. "That's it! We can be the worlds first superheroes."

Squall looked at Zell. "Zell you do know I was being sarc-"

"I know what I'll call myself. I'll be called Telekinetic-Man." Zell said, before Squall could finish. Zell put an arm in front of him and started running about, pretending to fly.

Squall rolled his eyes. "I'm out of here," Squall said, turning to leave the shop.

"See you later!" Zell called from behind him.

~*~*~*~*~

The train pulled up at the station. Rinoa yawned as she swiftly got out of her seat, grabbed her belongings and exited the train. The first thing she wanted to do was find somewhere to stay the night. As she looked around for a hotel she couldn't help but notice how beautiful the scenery was. Finally she found a hotel, it looked quite nice and it was right next to the sea.

Rinoa entered the hotel and went to the desk where one of the hotel staff was.

"How can I help you?" he said.

"Hi. I'd like a room for the night, please." Rinoa answered.

The man looked through a book, which must have shown the available rooms.

"Your name please?"

"Rinoa Heartilly." she said. He wrote down her name into the book and then handed her a key. 

"I'll show you to your room."  He walked around to the front of the desk. "Here, let me help you with your bags."

He grabbed the bags from the floor and the two walked down a corridor until he stepped outside a door. He pulled a key from his jacket that must have been the same as Rinoas. He opened the door and placed her bags inside the door, then he turned to her. "Are you new to this town?"

Rinoa nodded her head. He smiled at her. "If you need any help finding any places you can always ask me."

"I'll keep that in mind. Thank you." Rinoa replied, hoping that he would leave her sometime soon.

"Oh yeah, the name's Nida." He said before turning to walk down the corridor they had just walked along.

After he had left she stepped into her room. It was a small and cosy looking room with some French windows that led on to a balcony. Rinoa looked out the window over to the blue ocean, which was today glistening gently from the evening sun.

She took off her shoes and lay on the bed staring at the ceiling. She decided that she would rest now and have a look round town later.

Rinoa closed her eyes, admiring the sound of the waves gentle movement. Within a few minutes she had drifted off into a slumber.

Rinoa awoke to realise it was much later than she had expected herself to wake. She sat up from her bed and put her shoes on, then quickly stepped from her room locking the door behind her. She walked down to the main entrance. Before she entered the main room she glanced around to make sure Nida wasn't near by. Luckily he and what seemed like his father were busy checking in a mass of tourists that had just arrived.

She briskly walked to the double doors so that she could get out of this place, but before she could do so she tripped over something on the floor and hit her head on the corner of the main reception desk.

"Oh my Hyne, Rinoa. Are you okay?" Nida asked hysterically, as he rushed to help Rinoa up.

Rinoa touched her head. She could feel something wet on her finger and as she lowered it she could see it was blood.

"I'm alright," she said standing to her feet, ignoring the feeling of warm blood running down her face.

"You don't look alright to me ma'am," said Nida's father.

Rinoa put her hands on the reception desk for support, as she felt quite dizzy.

Nida's father turned to his panicking son. "Nida you take her to hospital to get it looked at while I take care of things here."

Nida nodded his head as he helped Rinoa out of the hotel and towards the hospital.


	3. Chapter 3 Hospital

Chapter 3

There was an awkward silence in the hospital cubical as Rinoa sat on the bed and Nida sat silently beside on a chair. He looked up suddenly. "Rinoa I'm really sorry about all this, it was my fault, I shouldn't have been so stupid by putting that bag in the hall way" 

Rinoa sighed to herself wondering how many more time he would have to apologise to her. She turned to him seeing him looking at her a little nervously, like a young child that had done something terribly wrong and was in trouble. "Don't worry about it," she said feeling a little sorry for him by the way he was acting about the whole incident. "I'm okay."

Nida looked down at the floor and started fidgeting with his hands, getting impatient; he sighed and stood up " I hate these damn hospitals, there so slow. You'll probably bleed to death by the time any doctor gets here"

Rinoa arched an eyebrow at his last comment, not wanting to cause any more trouble she kept quiet and nodded her head in agreement with him. The hospital in Balamb was a lot slower than the hospital she was used to back in Deling City.

"If they don't come within the next five minutes I'm gonna go complain" Nida said looking at his watch.

Rinoa let out another sigh, sensing that Nida was uncomfortable being here, she said, "You know Nida you can go if you want to, your father looked like he could do with some help back there at the hotel" 

He shook his head as he returned to his seat  " I promised my farther that I'd stay with you, and anyway, my mum will be there to help him out" 

The door to the hospital flew open and in came a doctor. Rinoa put her head in her hands as Nida began complaining about the long wait.

"…And another thing," he continued. "She could have been here dying here and by the time you would of got your lazy asses down here she could have been dead."

The doctor looked down at Nida, secretly amused by his sudden outburst. "Well I'm here now and if she had been dying I'm sure you wouldn't have helped by stopping me treat my patient."

Before Nida could say anything else the doctor pushed him out the cubical. "Stay out and let me do my job. Come back when you've calmed down," the doctor said before turning his back and walked back to Rinoa. Nida scowled at the doctor but knew he could do nothing about it, so slowly walked off silently cursing to himself.

Rinoa looked up at the doctor. "Thanks for doing that, he was really starting to ann - Squall?" she said startled as she looked into the doctors deep ethereal eyes and the unique scar that ran with a gentleness down his face.

He simply looked at her. "Hi Rinoa, it's nice to see you again," he said, his voice as casual as always.

"Squall, what are you doing here?" she said still in shock.

"I work here. Shouldn't I be asking you what you're doing here?"

"I just came here today and…well typical clumsy me already got injured." 

Squall stepped closer to her as he placed two gentle fingers on her forehead, inspecting her wound. "Looks nasty."

He picked up some equipment from nearby and began to clean the wound. Rinoa just sat there in complete amazement, she wondered if she had always though he was this attractive.

"Does Seifer live here?" Rinoa asked, she knew that Seifer and Squall envied each other when they were younger.

Squall nodded his head. "He works here as well but he's a psychiatrist."  
Rinoa smiled to herself. It was true what her friend had told her.

"It doesn't sound like the Seifer I used to know." Rinoa said, trying to imagine Seifer as a psychiatrist.

Squall nodded his head in agreement, his eyes still focusing on Rinoas injury. Squall dropped his hands to his sides. "You're free to go now."

Rinoa touched her head gently to find a bandage now covering the wound. "Thanks Squall," Rinoa said feeling a little sad that she had to leave Squall so quickly. 

Squall turned to a medical cupboard fastened to the wall and brought out a small white box. "You might get some bad headaches, if you do take one of these and it'll clear up. Squall said handing them to her. Rinoa took them from his hand and stood off the bed.

"Squall can we see each other again sometime?" she asked turning to Squall. "You know, catch up on the old days and stuff."

Squall nodded his head. Just to talk, usually he would have made an excuse or just said no but he found himself drawn to her. Somewhere deep down inside him he opened up to her. "I finish work in a few minutes, if you want to wait for me outside the reception I'll walk you home."  
Rinoa smiled. "Alright then, see you in a bit," she said before walking out the room.

~*~*~*~

Rinoa looked up at the stars in the sky as she waited for Squall on a bench outside the hospital. Since she came she had only really thought about seeing Seifer again, but what if it was a waste of time coming here? She didn't really know what she was doing here. Coming to see Seifer was what she had told herself, but deep down she knew it was just an excuse to get away. 

Rinoa thought to her home back in Deling City. Her and her father. They had had problems in the past but everything was sorted out now. Just as things seemed to be getting back to normal she saw a new problem arose. The problem came in the form of Nina Richardson, her father's new girlfriend. Ever since Rinoa first met her she hadn't liked her, and Nina seemed to feel exactly the same about Rinoa. Nina envied the closeness of Rinoa and her father and tried to separate them constantly. This had been going on for almost a year. Rinoa needed an excuse to get away for a while.

Rinoa snapped from her thoughts when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Squall standing over her.

"You okay?" he asked.

Rinoa nodded her head and stood from the bench. "I'm fine."

"Where's that annoying person who was with you when I first came in?" Squall asked looking around.

"Nida. He's gone back because I made up some lame excuse to get rid of him," Rinoa said smiling.

Squall stuck his hands in his pockets. Since finishing work he had changed from his blue scrubs to some scruffy blue jeans and a black T-shirt. He looked at the ground feeling her eyes looking at him.

"Nida, huh?" he finally said. "Is he your boyfriend or something?"

Squall lifted his head up to see her face again. Rinoa shook her head, with a small giggle. "No, he works at the hotel I'm staying at."

They both started to walk through Balamb together. Neither of them said much but Rinoa didn't mind, she just enjoyed spending some time with an old friend. Back when she was at school with him he was never much of a conversation starter, he was more of a listener though you could never tell if he was actually listening. At school it didn't seem to bother him being alone, he was always lost in thought. As she looked over at him she realised he was just the same old Squall.

The pair turned into a new street, stepping from a shadowy path to a brightly illuminated street. Small squares of light shone from the windows of the hotel. They both came to a stop as they stood outside the hotel, during this mild night. Rinoa looked up at Squall and smiled. "Thanks for walking me to my hotel."

Squall gave her a nod. "How long are you staying in Balamb?"

Rinoa shrugged her shoulders. "It depends."

"On what?"

'Depends on what' she asked herself. 'If my Dad and Nina show they really care about me and want me back? If Seifer still wants to keep in contact with me? Or maybe Squall…'

"Squall could you do something for me, please?" Rinoa said, changing the subject quickly. "Could you let Seifer know I'm here?"

Squall nodded his head. Rinoa opened the entrance to the hotel, before stepping inside she took one last glance at Squall.

"Goodnight Squall," she said before entering the hotel.

~*~*~*~

Squall lay awake in bed staring at the ceiling. He wasn't sure of the time, he wasn't really bothered either as his mind was somewhere else. His mind thought back on Rinoa. What was she doing here? Although he couldn't admit it, he was glad to have seen her again. He had almost forgotten how beautiful she was.

When he was in school he never wanted to be like a human and stayed by himself, he never really had any friends. He was completely the opposite of Seifer, who seemed to fit in straight away and became instantly popular. Seifer never looked back on being a mutant, but Squall stayed believing that one-day he wouldn't have to keep his secret away from everyone. That one-day he would be free of all prejudice.

Sometimes he wished he was invisible, he ended up staying against walls like it was some sort of shelter away from everyone else. Always staying as close as he could to the wall whenever he walked down the hallway of the school. In class he would sit at the back. It was his way of getting away from everyone. Even the teachers didn't like him. They would know when something bad was going to happen to him, but they just simply turned their backs until they had finishing bullying Squall.

It made him so angry he'd feel sick. He heated the way everyone treated him. Then she came along, he didn't know why but one day she just started talking to him. Although he never really spoke to her that much, everyday she'd be there talking to him. Secretly he was afraid, the reason he never talked to her that much was because he knew if he got to know her better he would fall in love with her.

Authors Note: Phew! Finally written that chapter up! Just for future reference, Squall has the same powers as Max if you watch Roswell. Wahhhhhhh!!! Its going to be the last ever episode of Roswell on Thursday for those of you who have sky one and live in England please watch it even if you don't usually watch it. Nobody watches it, am I the only one?!

_Thank you to Phoenix Blade, Dark Raion, Renegade Seraph, Embodyment of the inferno, Exile87, Ethrial and Quisty878 for reviewing my story so far. It really means a lot to me ya know. THANK YOU!!!!! _


	4. Chapter 4 Home

Authors note: Exhile87, is that right? I'm so sorry I got your name wrong; I can be a bit of a ditsy at times! Too make it up to you; I dedicate this chapter to Exhile87. ^_^ Thanks for all the reviews people!

Chapter 4

Rinoa stepped out of the hotel as she felt the warm sun on her face.

"Rinoa," came a voice from behind her. She smiled as she recognised the voice. She turned around to see a handsome blond man stood leaning against the wall.

"Hi Seifer."

"Squall told me you were in town so I thought I'd visit you," Seifer said, with a smile spreading across his face.

"Do you want to go to a café or something where we can talk?"

Rinoa nodded her head. "Sure."

Two steaming cups of coffee sat on the table where Rinoa sat listening to Seifer's story of how he became a psychiatrist. "I'm sorry Rinoa, am I boring you?" Seifer said, noticing that she seemed distant.

Rinoa shook her head. "No, it's an interesting story." she placed her head in her hands. "I was just thinking you've changed so much."

Seifer shrugged his shoulders. "Well I didn't want to stay the bad guy forever, I don't like people being afraid of me all the time."

"What sort of psychiatrist would you be if people were afraid of you?" Rinoa said smiling. Seifer smiled back at her, noticing that she hadn't changed much, he didn't want her to change either, he liked her the way she was.

"How long have you been in Balamb for?" he asked.

"Since yesterday."

"I take it you have a place to stay because I doubt you would sleep on the streets?"

Rinoa let out a small laugh. "Well I had a place to stay at the hotel but I have to be out of there by the end of the day," Rinoa sighed. "I'll have to see if I can stay another night there."

"You don't have to," Seifer said, looking at her. "My girlfriend's friend is looking for a room mate, you could stay with her if you want."

Rinoa froze as she heard him say the word 'girlfriend'. She felt her heart ache deep inside her, she tried as hard as she could not to look upset and tried to take her mind off it.

"Thanks Seifer, but I don't know her she is and she might not want me to barge into her home." Rinoa said; she could hear her voice cracking as she spoke.

"It'll be fine Rinoa, she doesn't hate anyone and it doesn't have to be permanent."

It would be nice to meet someone new, Rinoa thought to herself. She nodded her head. "Alright then," Rinoa said.

"Great! I'll tell her. By the way, her name's Selphie Tilmitt, she works in a pub opposite the hospital."

"Anything else I need to know about her?" Rinoa asked.

"Well…" Seifer said thinking. "She can be a bit crazy at times but you'll like her."

~*~*~*~*~

Rinoa stood feeling a little uncomfortable outside a door. She looked down to piece of paper, checking the address that Seifer had given her. It was the right house. Rinoa raised a hand towards the door, pressing the doorbell at the side of the door. A ringing sound came from the inside of the house, a few moments later the door opened and a friendly looking young female stepped out from behind the door.

"Hi, you must be Rinoa," she said giving Rinoa a warm smile. "I'm Selphie." She put out hand out; Rinoa also put her hand out and shook Selphie's hand.

After a tour around Selphie's home, Rinoa and Selphie sat down and began to talk. Rinoa looked at the clock to find it was 7:30. After being here for more than a day Rinoa thought she should contact her father. She got permission from Selphie to use her phone before dialling her father's number. After a few rings the phone was picked up.

"Hello?" came the cold, stern female voice. Rinoa had hoped that Nina wouldn't pick up the phone. Nina hadn't even been living there for long but she already seemed to be taking over the house.

"Nina, is my father there?" Rinoa said, hoping Nina would cooperate with her today.

"He's not here."

"Do you know when he'll be back?"

"That's classified information, I can't tell you."

Her father would always let Rinoa know where he was going and when he'd be back. Rinoa tried her hardest to hold back her anger so that she wouldn't have to shout at Nina down the phone.

"Please Nina, I just want to know when he'll be back."

"I already told you. It's classified information."

Rinoa couldn't hold in her anger anymore. "Nina-"

"I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong number." Smiling to herself Nina put the phone down.

"Who was that?" came a voice from behind her. Nina turned to see Caraway stood behind her. She pushed her long blond hair behind her shoulder.

"It was no one, darling," a slight grin grew over Nina's face. "No one."

Rinoa slammed the phone down shaking with anger. She backed up towards the wall and started to cry. Selphie walked towards the whimpering Rinoa. "What's wrong?"

Rinoa whipped her eyes. "It's nothing," she said. "I just need to be alone."

~*~*~*~*~

Squall drove down the winding road, on both sides of him there seemed to be never-ending trees from the forest, which now seemed to be fading from the fog of the night.

The further he drove, the thicker the fog seemed to get. He turned a sharp corner, and quickly slammed his foot down on the brake as he saw his vehicle fast approaching sort kind of creature. He heard a bang as his car slowed to a stop. Squall stepped out of his car, in a state of shock, and walked to the front of his car. He looked down to see a puddle of blood streaming from an animal.

Squall kneeled down and in the light from his headlights saw that he had hit a dear. The dear let out a faint cry as it rested its head on the road. Squall looked at it in sorrow. He knew he couldn't let it die and it obviously wasn't go to survive by itself. Squall looked round, checking his surroundings. The road was dull and quiet, the only sounds being the noise of the local animals. Behind he could see the lights coming from Balamb.

He turned his attention back to the dear, which was now lying very still. The blood now matted the dear's soft fur in a sickly red. Squall gently placed a hand on the dear's body and stroked it softly. The dear closed its eyes and appeared to relax, understanding Squall was going to help. 

Carefully Squall placed his hand over the dears wound. The still warm blood quickly stained his hand. Squall concentrated, as a holy light emitted from Squall's palm, the wound closing and leaving the body perfect, except for the blood that had already exited the body.

The dear began to move and slowly it stood shakily on its legs. It took a few steps forward then ran off into the forest where it must have come from. Squall watched as the dear left running free into the wild again, unharmed. Squall let out a small sigh and took a step forward to return to his car but stopped in his tracks as he heard footsteps coming from behind him. He wasn't sure if he should look behind to see what the footsteps were coming from.

"Squall?" came a voice from behind him…

A/n: Don't forget to review! ^_^


	5. Chapter 5 Discovery

Authors note: Alrighty then, it seems that there was some confusion in the last chapter. Selphie is Seifer's girlfriend's friend and Quistis is Seifer's girlfriend. That make sense?

 Oh yeah just in case any of you haven't read my bio, which I doubt anyone has. You'll see that I share this account with my brother. 'Crossing the line' is my brothers story.

Umm…in some chapters they'll be a part where one of the characters will tell the story so far if you know what I mean. If you don't then there's one at the end of this chapter anyway. I've put it in italics, but you know as well as I do that italics don't always work so I have put brackets around it, and if they don't work I'm screwed.

Enjoy!   

Chapter 5

Squall turned around to face the person who had called his name. She stood there with a slight smile on her face, but her eyes seemed to be red and puffed up like she had been crying. She looked at him with her smile widening as she studied his face and tilted her head to the side. "You okay?" she said with a slight giggle. "You look like you've seen a ghost!"

Squall sighed with relief knowing that she didn't know he was a mutant. "I'm okay," he said, facing the front of the car again being careful not to draw attention to the little puddle of blood that was still on the floor from the deer that lay beside his feet, but Rinoa caught sight of it and stepped nearer to him to inspect it.

"That deer…is it going to be okay in the wild?"

Squall looked at her surprised. She'd seen the deer, maybe she could have seen what he had done, but by the way she was talking it didn't seem that she had.

"I don't know," he replied. Walking to his car he opened the door. "Would you like me to drive you home?" he offered.

"Okay." Rinoa said as she nodded her head. She stepped into the car and closed the car door behind her. Squall started the engine up and drove along the road.

Inside the car the only thing that could be heard was the engine as the two sat in silence. Squall glanced at Rinoa to find her looking out the window watching the scenery fly past. She looked distant, like there was something on her mind.

He wouldn't usually have been bothered about someone else's feelings, as he didn't like the idea of carrying other people's burden, but he felt his mouth open and breathed out the words  "Are you okay?"

Rinoa turned her gaze to Squall with a slight smile, and then looked back out the window. "It's just Nina…" she said.

Squall turned to Rinoa. "Nina?"

"My soon to be step mum."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"My mother died when I was a child, my father was so upset…I don't think he ever has fully got over her." She put her hand to her chain and clung onto a ring that hung from it. "He's never been the same since she past away. He just concentrates on his work and when he's not doing that, he drinks. I tried to help him…but he would still drink and then when he was drunk…he'd tell me how much he hated me," she let out a sigh before continuing. "I always told myself that he was drunk and he didn't mean it but…words can hurt."

Squall nodded his head in agreement, he knew, words can hurt. "Is that why you came here?" Squall asked. "So you could get away from him?"

Rinoa shook her head. "No, I couldn't just leave him like that. I wanted to do something to make him happy, just once. I made him go to all these business parties to socialise with a few people. Finally he began to cheer up a little and he even gave up all the drinking. Then one day he came home and told me he had met someone, Nina Richardson. I was happy for him, of course but as time went on things got more serious between them and she started interfering with me and my father's relationship. I felt I felt I couldn't stay there anymore and that's why I came here. To spend sometime away from Nina."

She looked at Squall and watched as he drove. "I'm sorry," she said. "You probably didn't want to hear all that about me."

_'I just feel I can talk to you, but I don't know why' _Rinoa thought to herself.

Squall pulled the car up by the side of the house where Rinoa lived. Rinoa took off her seatbelt and turned to Squall who was looking at her. "I don't want to go home yet. Would you like to go for a walk?"

"Alright"

~*~*~*~*~

The park, which was usually crowded with children, now looked deserted and spooky in the darkness of the night. There were a few random sounds of owls and other creatures around, but apart from that it was calm and silent.

Rinoa sat down on a swing and Squall took position on the swing next to her. Rinoa looked up into the darkness above her at the stars. She saw a shooting star jet across the night sky leaving a long, white tail in its wake. She looked over to Squall, who had also seen the shooting star. "It's a beautiful night, isn't it?" she said.

Squall nodded his head as he continued to look up. Rinoa sat for a moment in silence before speaking again. "That thing you did to that deer tonight, it was caring."

Squall looked at Rinoa confused. "What do you mean?"

She gave him a slight smile. "That deer…I saw it, it was on the ground bleeding and you…healed it."

Shit she saw, Squall thought to himself. He ran a hand through his brown hair, not sure of how to respond. What could he say? He could feel Rinoa looking straight at him, more than likely waiting for him to speak. She took her gaze off him and stared at the ground.

"You're one of them, aren't you?" She returned her gaze to Squall. "You're a mutant."

Squall let out a sigh as he nodded his head. He looked at Rinoa to find her smiling slightly, but it quickly faded to a serious look. "Can mutants do this?" she asked as she looked down to the ground as if she was searching for something. Finally her eyes fell still, her body fell into a frozen stance as her eyes stayed locked on the ground. Squall followed the gaze towards a small stone. Every few seconds it moved slightly, then gradually it raised from the ground and hovered in the air, before falling back to the ground.

After this Rinoa turned back to a shocked Squall. "You're a mutant too?" he asked confused.

Rinoa smiled again. "I don't think so," she began pushing herself backwards and forwards on the swing. "You're a mutant, can you remember being trained as a soldier when you were younger?"

"Yeah."

"The only memories I have are with my family." She stopped swinging. "And besides I can remember hearing about when they wanted to destroy the mutants when I was younger."

Squall looked at her confused. "So how can you do them things?"

"I'm not sure, but I've always been able to do it. I never told anyone though…" she paused for a moment. "I used to do it when I was on my own. One time when I was around five I was in my room lifting things up with my mind, my mum came in my room and saw." She took her eyes off Squall and stared at the ground. "She was really upset. She told me never to do it again for my own safety and if anyone found out it would put us all in danger," she looked back towards Squall. "Could you…help me find out how I got my powers?"

Looking at Rinoa, Squall could see in her eyes she desperately wanted to know who or what she was. Squall smiled slightly. "Of course I will."

"Thank you so much Squall, you don't know how much this means to me." Rinoa stood to her feet. "Can you walk me home?"

~*~*~*~*~

"So are you and Seifer really brothers then?" Rinoa asked as they walked down the street leading to Rinoa and Selphie's home.

"Yeah."

"How?"

"Me and Seifer, we're both made from the same genetic DNA, although they altered our physical appearances. I suppose if we were still soldiers we'd have the same sort of personality but that's changed through the environment we live in."

They stopped as they approached Rinoa's house.

"Thank you Squall," Rinoa said. "It really means a lot to me that I've been able to talk to you."

Rinoa stepped closer to Squall and wrapped her arms around his waist. She didn't expect Squall to react to the hug but to her surprise she felt his arms slide around her. She didn't know how long they stood there but she didn't care, she felt safe in his arms. Rinoa dropped her arms to her sides and faced Squall. She wasn't quite sure what she was doing, but she found herself leaning forwards and placing a kiss on Squall's lips. Without saying a word, she turned around and walked back to the house. Taking one last glance at Squall she smiled and gave him a wave before closing the door.

"Well, well, well," came a happy voice from behind her. Rinoa turned around looking at a smiling Selphie. "Wouldn't have thought Squall was your type but life's full of surprises."

Rinoa rolled her eyes at Selphie's comment. "Selphie, he's just an old friend."

"Oh yeah, that hug was waaay to long for 'just an old friend'"

"Whatever," Rinoa said, giving Selphie a gentle push.

"Hey, I'm just being a good friend and spying on you," Selphie said laughing, and then headed into the kitchen.

"Do you want some hot chocolate?"

"Okay." Rinoa said, following Selphie to the kitchen.

(It was good to finally tell someone about what happened to me when I was younger. I never had mentioned it to anyone in my life, and there I was telling Squall. I always knew there was something special about Squall that noone ever saw. Thinking back on it now, I can remember some people who bullied him mentioning that when they were chasing him, he would run in a room and amazingly it would lock, even though there was no lock on the door. I felt quite honoured that Squall would tell me he was a mutant, it's not like he would have told many people, he's not stupid.

_Selphie wouldn't stop bugging me about hugging Squall. I kept telling her that we were just friends. It was sort of the truth, when I hugged him it was intentionally being friendly. I don't think I realised it then but maybe I felt something more, like he was more than just a friend.)_

Authors note: Hello it's me again! Incase anyone is confused, Rinoa is **not **a mutant. It will all be explained in future chapters. Review!


	6. Chapter 6 Paradise

Authors note: Hiya people! I'm sorry its taken me so long to update I've just had loads of homework and I've recently had an important exam. 

In this chapter I've used a song by Vanessa Carlton called 'Paradise'. This chapter might seem a little…different compared to the rest of chapters but all will make sense in the next chapter.

Once upon a year gone by 

_She saw herself give in_

_Every time she closed her eyes_

She saw what could have been 

People, lots of them, all in there own life. All mixed up in their own problems, fears and happiness. She watched down on them most evenings, she just sat at her window watching people live their lives. It's easier to watch someone else live their life then it is to live your own.

She lifted up her hand to push her black hair behind her ear, then stood from her chair and turned to look at herself in the mirror. Surely enough her reflection stared back at her. In her eyes anyone could see she didn't have much hope left in her. Autumn Ivers, it wasn't her real name, she never wanted to use her real name again. It brought back too many bad memories. She looked at her reflection, her pitiful reflection. She knew time was running out for her.

Autumn lay in her bed tossing and turning; she hated the night, that's when once again the memories would haunt her. In her twenty years of living she never had thought life could be so bad. She was one of the first successful mutants made, and one of the first to escape from that prison she lived in. She had never known what it was like to have family and friends that cared for her. She thought back to just over a year ago when she was a little happier, her so-called 'boyfriend' used her for sex. He never cared about anyone, not even her.

Every night the nightmare begins. She found out she was pregnant; she was happy, but terrified at the same time. Beaten, bruised by her boyfriend when he found out. She knew he had been drinking when she had told him that day, perhaps…she knew it would be easier, and in the morning he more than likely wouldn't remember a thing. That night she decided to leave him.__

_Well nothing hurts and nothing bleeds_

_When covers tucked in tight_

_Funny when the bottom drops_

How she forgets to fight…to fight 

Nine months later of agony, no home, hardly any money or food, she gave in. When she was in labour she came to the police station and told them she was a mutant. Everyone was afraid. There were guns being fired and she was taken away somewhere. She couldn't remember where she went after that. The most painful memory was waking up in a room and seeing her baby for the first time. She didn't care who the people in the room were, she knew that they knew she was a mutant so she told them to kill her and let her baby live. They did the opposite. They murdered her baby in front of her and healed Autumn, letting her live this hell once more.__

_And it's one more day in paradise_

One more day in paradise 

Autumn awoke quickly in bed and started to cry. Every night the same dream, the same nightmare, the same reality. She couldn't take it anymore, she felt like she was going crazy or maybe she was already. Everyday was a never-ending cycle. In her cycle this would usually be the part where she was upset and would tell herself everything would be okay, but she knew she was just hiding from the truth. Everyday felt even worse than the last.__

_As darkness quickly steals the light_

_That shines within her eyes_

_She slowly swallows all her fear_

_And soothes her mind with lies_

_Well all she wants and all she needs_

_Are reasons to survive_

_A day in which the sun will take_

Her artificial light…her light 

She grabbed her clothes and quickly got changed. Then she set out into the coolness of the night. She had to put an end to it. She wasn't sure where she was going; her empty mind led the way, until her legs came to a stop. She looked up and saw it was the hospital. Slowly, she began walking up the stone steps that led to the main entrance.

Inside the building were lots of people sat in chairs, almost all of them were injured. At the reception desk was a friendly looking middle-aged woman. Autumn saw the receptionist looking at her.

"Can I help you?" she asked Autumn.

"I want my baby." Autumn answered.

The receptionist looked at her strangely for a moment before speaking again. "You want to see your baby? If you go to the second floor, it's the first room on the left," she turned to her computer. "I don't think I've seen you before, can you tell me your name, please?" When the receptionist heard no reply she turned to where Autumn had been standing only to find that she was no longer there. The receptionist looked around for her but she was nowhere to be seen.

Autumn stepped out of the lift on to the second floor and walked down the corridor towards her destination. She stopped outside the room and looked through the glass to see the rows of babies. Slowly she opened the door and entered the room before quickly shutting the door behind her. She walked through the room and stopped at a baby girl. A small smile crept on Autumn's face as she watched over the baby.

"She's beautiful isn't she?" came a female voice from behind her. Autumn turned around quickly, startled by the person who was with her. She turned around to find that it was a nurse stood behind her. "Sorry there honey, didn't mean to scare you," the nurse said chuckling slightly.

Autumn stood still for a moment, not saying anything. "Get out." She finally said quietly.

The nurse looked at her confused. "What?"

"Get out," she said, more firmly this time.

"You can't tell me to get out, I work here."

Autumn could feel she was going to go out of control sometime soon. She really didn't want this nurse to get hurt. "Please, for your own safety…just leave," she pleaded.

"I have work to do here, I'm sorry but I really can't leave this room." The nurse turned around and walked to the other side of the room carrying on with her work. She felt a sharp pain in her back before falling limp to the floor.

Autumn watched over the nurse as blood poured from her back, from where she had been stabbed and stained the white floor. She looked at the switchblade in her hand, which was now covered in a layer of blood. Since just over a year ago she had brought one for her own protection. She never left the flat without it being close to her. It was supposed to only be for protection.

A tear drifted down Autumn's face but she quickly wiped it away. She heard a noise from behind her, and walked to where it was coming from to find the baby she had been looking at was crying.__

_One more day in paradise_

One more day in paradise 

She looked over the crying baby girl. She noticed that when the baby was sleeping it looked so beautiful, now Autumn couldn't stand the whining baby. It still continued to cry.

"Shut up!" Autumn screamed at the top her lungs, but instead the baby continued to cry, now even louder than before. Autumn could feel herself crying too, but she didn't feel sad, she just felt angry. She just wished the baby would be quiet.

She gently pulled the covers over the baby's mouth and nose then pressed it down, stopping it from breathing. A few moments later the baby laid still. "Now you know how my daughter felt when she was just born," Autumn said as she realised that the baby was dead. Without remorse she walked from the room as she headed up the steps to the roof of the hospital.__

_It's one more day in paradise_

One last chance to feel alright…alright 

Autumn sat on the side of the roof with her legs dangling over the edge. She ran a hand through her short, black hair. It would be getting light in a few hours she thought as she looked down at her watch to see it was 3:30am. Time didn't have any relevance to her anymore.

The door opened that led on to the rooftop opened and a woman stepped out and walked closer to Autumn. She had seen a CCTV camera a few minutes ago and had wondered if anyone would come out to try to stop her. Surely enough someone had come out and now the woman was walking towards her and was knelt beside Autumn. 

"It's a nice night, isn't it?" said the woman. Autumn turned to her and looked at her. The woman was smartly dressed with her greying-brown hair pulled back in a clip and a pair of glasses placed on the end of her nose.

"It's morning," Autumn simply replied.

The woman smiled slightly. "My name is Alison Beck," she said putting a hand out, in a friendly gesture.

"Autumn Ivers," she said shaking her hand.

"It's nice to meet you Autumn."

"So out of all the people they could send up here they decided to send a shrink." Autumn said looking into the dark sky.

"I wasn't sent up here, I decided to come up her by my own free will." Alison moved a little closer to Autumn. "How did you know I was a psychiatrist?"

"Just a guess."

How did she know? She'd been to too many psychiatrists in her life time. They all dressed basically the same and they all had a 'yes I give a damn about your life' look on their faces. Autumn wondered when Alison would start saying the usual things.__

_Don't pretend to hold it in just let it out_

_Don't pretend to hold it in just push it out_

_Don't you try to hold it in just let it out and_

Don't you try to hold it in you hold it in 

"What brought you up here?" Alison said, trying to sound as friendly as possible.

"If I told you, you'd kill me," Autumn relied.

"Autumn, I'm not going to kill you. What makes you say that?"

She could feel tears starting to form in her eyes. "Because I did something really bad," she said as her voice started to break at the end.

"What did you do Autumn?"

A tear rolled down her face and she didn't answer Alison's question.

Alison decided that she would try again. "Autumn I'm the only one up here. Talk to me. What did you do?"

She'd kept everything in for too long, she felt like she had lived a lie. So now she was going to let it out, so she could finally die peacefully. Autumn could feel herself crying now, Alison slid closer putting an arm around her for comfort.

"I killed a baby," she whispered.

"Why did you do that Autumn?" Alison said, trying her hardest to keep calm.

Autumn pulled away quickly and stood up. "Stop calling me Autumn," she said. "It's not my real name."

Alison stood up next to her a little confused. "What's your real name?"

"Ellone Loire."

"Ellone, that's a beautiful name," Alison said trying to lighten the mood a little. "Why did you call yourself Autumn?"

Ellone took a step closer to the edge of the roof. "I started calling myself Autumn when they found out."

"Found out what?"

"That I was a mutant."

There was a long silence.

"When they found out, they killed my baby," Ellone said quietly.

"Oh my god, that must have been awful," Alison said, dropping her psychiatrist tone.

Ellone nodded her head. "Can you tell the parents of the baby I'm sorry and if the nurse is still alive can you apologise to her for me as well."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll find out soon, just promise me you will."

Alison paused for a moment. "I will, I promise."

"Thank you Alison, you're a good person," she said, smiling at her. "But…I must go now, my time is up." Ellone said, taking a step towards the edge of the rooftop.

"No!" Alison screamed.

"Please Alison, don't worry. When it's over I'll finally be happy with my baby girl…goodbye."

Ellone leaned forward until she was no longer on the rooftop. She could see the ground quickly approaching. She smiled. Soon  it would be over, soon she would finally be happy.__

_Once upon a year gone by_

_She saw herself give in_

_Every time she closed her eyes_

_She saw what could have been…_

Authors note: Ellone huh? Bet ya didn't see that one coming. Review please and tell me what you think of this chapter!


	7. Chapter 7 Visiting

Chapter 7-Visiting

Rinoa turned over and yawned as she awoke from her slumber. She smiled to herself as the memories come back to her from the night before when she found out about Squall being a mutant.

She looked at the clock on the wall to find it was 9:00 am. Outside she could hear rain hitting her window making a gentle patting sound.

She got out of bed and headed out of her room where she heard voices coming from the TV in the living room. Rinoa pushed the door open to see Selphie sat on the sofa watching the cartoons that were shown every morning.

Selphie turned her head towards Rinoa as she heard her enter the room. "Good morning," Selphie said in her usual chirpy mood.

"Morning Selphie," Rinoa replied, as she sat down next to her on the sofa.

"Seeing Squall today?" Selphie teased, which was responded by a cushion being thrown at her face.

Rinoa turned towards the television screen, ignoring Selphie's giggles. "Is there anything decent on TV?"

Selphie flicked through the channels. "Cartoons, cartoons, news and more cartoons."

"Wow, great choices!" Rinoa said jokingly. "I'm gonna get dressed and go for a walk."

"Alrighty, perhaps there's something better going on in the outside world than these cartoons."

"Maybe," Rinoa said, stepping into the hallway and into she bathroom where she took a shower and got dressed.

"See ya later Selphie," Rinoa called through the house before stepping out the front door. She was greeted by the coolness of the winter morning, wrapping her arms around herself to keep a little warmer; she set off to her destination unknown.

~*~*~*~*~

There was a knock at the door, Squall got up and opened the door to find Quistis and Zell behind it.

"Squall, is Seifer with you, we need you to see something," Quistis said pulling out a newspaper. 

"It's alright Quistis, we already know," came a voice from behind Squall. Seifer stepped forward and gestured for the two to enter. The four of them walked into the living room where there were two chairs and a sofa around a coffee table. Squall sat down on chair, Quistis sat on the sofa with Seifer leant against the arm of it next to her and Zell sat on the floor examining the newspaper that was placed on it.

"So…" Zell started. "A mutant committed suicide last night."

"That's awful," Quistis said in thought. "I wonder if we knew her when we were younger."

"We won't know, the newspaper didn't mention her name," Seifer said. "It just says that for the past year she went by the name of Autumn Ivers."

"What could she have done that would have made her want to kill herself?" Quistis asked.

"Well, she did murder a baby and attempted to do the same to a nurse that worked there."

"Yeah I know that Zell, but that wouldn't be the only reason."

Squall took a look at the newspaper and read through the text. "It says she was with a psychiatrist before she jumped, do you think she would have said anything to her?"

"Perhaps." 

"What's her name? She might work at the same place as I do." Seifer asked.

"Alison Beck," Squall answered. "Do you know her?"

"Yeah…" Seifer replied. "She's actually quite a good friend of mine, maybe I could go visit her later on and ask her about it, she might know more than what the newspaper says."

"Maybe she could tell you what Autumns real name is, if she knows," Quistis said.

~*~*~*~*~

Stood in front of a big wooden door, with a picture of a bird, which had been painted delicately on the glass near the top of the door, was Seifer. He raised hand and pressed the golden doorbell, from beyond the door the door he heard the jingle it had made and a dog bark. A few moments later through the frosty glass he saw an image appear towards the door. The door handle make a clicking sound before the door opened and Alison appeared.

"Seifer?" she said, a little startled from seeing him at her door. Although she and Seifer were close friends he had only ever come around her house for work related reasons. She had taken the day off work, so he couldn't possibly be here for that reason.

"Hi," Seifer said with a slight smile. "Sorry for turning up at your door like this. I read what happened about last night and thought I'd see if you were alright." Seifer said awkwardly, just realising how tough this might be on her. _'Damn I'm so insensitive,'_ Seifer thought to himself.

'Last night' the words seemed to stab her as the memories of the night before came back to her, which she had been trying all morning to forget. She froze for a moment in silence.

"That's sweet of you," she forced herself to say. "I'm alright though, you don't need to worry about me," she lied.

Seifer studied her for a moment noticing how tense she was. "Are you sure? I know if that was me I would be a little shaken up by it."

She smiled at him slightly. "You're so young, but yet you have such a big heart to care about a middle aged mother like me."

"You've always helped me, I guess this is my way of paying you back."

Alison felt touched. "Would you like to come in and have some tea, you must be freezing out there," she said allowing Seifer inside her house.

The inside of the house had a cosy feel to it. She led him into the living room, where there were two armchairs and a sofa on the outskirts of the room. Around the walls were lots of pictures of young children. On the floor lying near the fireplace was a sleeping Labrador. Seifer took a seat on the sofa, a few moments later Alison returned to the room. She took a seat in a chair and let out a little sigh.

"I've had so many reporters come round my house today, I'm glad it was you that came. I thought that it would have been another of those damn reporters."  
"I can imagine," Seifer said.

There was an awkward silence for a few moments until Alison spoke up again. "It makes you think doesn't it?" she said. "Is it really worth it?"

Alison acknowledged the confused look on Seifer's face. "Sorry I guess I'm not making any sense am I?" she said with a smile. "It's just we all live our lives in fear. We're told that these are the mutants, which are evil and roam our streets. Why do we never question what the government tells us? After meeting that girl last night it makes me wonder, are they really that bad?"

"Almost everyone thinks that they are"

Alison picked up a newspaper and looked at the article on the front page. "That poor girl, she was no older than you," she said looking towards Seifer. "She must have been driven to suicide because of us, it's not fair on any of them. I wish all of this would come to a stop, since the escape they haven't even hurt anyone."

Seifer nodded his head feeling at ease because the woman that was sat in the very same room was probably the only one in Balamb that didn't hate mutants.

"It's a strange feeling," Alison started. "How do you know if they are mutant or not if we all look the same?"

Seifer looked at her for a moment before answering. "I don't really know…"

"I would never of guessed she was a mutant. I could have been confronted with more than one mutant and wouldn't have guessed it…like you for instance."

Seifer's heart stopped. Was she really implying that he was a mutant?

"W-What do you mean?" Seifer stammered as he looked into the serious face of Alison Beck. She studied him for a moment then the corners of her lips curved up into a smile and let out a small laugh.

"I'm joking with you, Seifer."

"You were? Oh yeah." Seifer said with a fake laugh and let out a silent sigh of relief.

"I don't like everything being so serious all of a sudden."

"Yeah, I suppose it isn't helping."

Alison nodded her head. "And besides I don't see why the reporters can't let it be." She now put on a more serious face. "Anyway El- I mean Autumn said she would be happy, we've obviously caused enough damage in her life, we should leave her in peace now."

Seifer nodded his head, thinking about what she had just said. He noticed how before saying Autumn she had corrected herself; she was going to say a different name. A name beginning with 'El'.

Authors note: Yay! No more school!!!!!!!!!  Hi there, sorry this chapter is a bit naff but things should liven up in the next chapter.  Happy Christmas everyone! ^_^


	8. Chapter 8 The Corpse

Chapter 8- The Corpse

When you're young your mother tells you not to look at the sun, she always tells you 'Don't look at the sun or you'll go blind' but sometimes you'll risk going blind because you desperately want to see the truth. 

Squall walked down the long white corridor of the hospital until he turned and went into a cubicle where a familiar looking patient lay in the hospital bed. As he walked closer to the patient he realised it was one of his colleagues.

"Donna?" Squall said in surprise as he realised who it was.

"Hey Squall," Donna said faintly.

"What happened to you?" Squall asked taking out a needle, injecting the morphine into her arm.

"Haven't you heard about that girl last night?"

"She committed suicide."

Donna nodded her head slightly. "But not before trying to kill me."

"Why did she do that?" Squall asked confused.

"I don't know. She just told me to leave the room for my own safety," Donna started. "I didn't think she met it literally and anyway, I had a job to do. I continued with my work then the bitch tried to kill me."

Squall studied her for a moment. "You're lucky to be alive, you should get some rest," he said standing up as he turned to leave the room. He sighed as he closed the door; the mutant had definitely been troubled. It was a shame he was never able to talk to her, whoever she was.

"Do you ever wonder who she was?"

Squall turned around, startled, to where the voice had come from.

"Perhaps you knew her in the past," Rinoa continued.

"Yeah…what are you doing here?" Squall asked puzzled.

"I heard the news about last night and decided to find you. Seifer said you was at work so I came here, luckily I saw you and followed you here," Rinoa said. "I waited outside here until you came out so I could talk to you."

"I can't talk right now. I'm sorry, but I have to go."

Rinoa looked at Squall disappointed. "Okay, I'll see you around then," she said, turning to leave but a hand gripped around her arm and gently pulled her back.

"I have my lunch break in half an hour, wait in the hospital café for me."

"Okay."

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Do you know who she was?" Rinoa asked.

"No, the paper didn't give out her real name," Squall explained.

Rinoa turned her head to look out the window. There was a quick pause and then Rinoa spoke again. "Do you…want to see her to see if you recognise her?"

Squall studied her for a moment. "What are you saying? We go to the morgue to see if I recognise her?"

Rinoa looked at Squall for a moment and then nodded her head slightly.

"Are you crazy?" Squall said amazed at what he was hearing.

"Maybe, but I doubt the reporters will give out her real name…if they even know it. You're not going to know who she is until you see for yourself. Aren't you just a little curious to find out who she is?"

"Yeah, but-"

"But you'll never know if you knew her if you don't see for yourself and I keep having a strange feeling inside that you will know her."

Squall looked at Rinoa speechless for a moment. "What if we get caught?"

Rinoa gave him a playful hit on the arm. "You work here, remember?"

Squall looked at her one last time before standing from his seat. "You're crazy, you know that? Let's go."

The two of them walked down the corridor of the hospital until they came to a stop outside two double doors.

"This is it," Squall said facing Rinoa.

Rinoa turned to Squall and smiled. "Ready?"

Squall nodded his before opening the double doors and both of them entered.

The room was quite dull with beds spread quite far apart from each other. As Rinoa looked around she could see some of the beds were occupied by the deceased, which sent a shiver up Rinoa's spine. Luckily the bodies were covered with a sheet.

"How are you supposed to know where she is?" Rinoa asked.

"Take a guess."

"There aren't that many bodies, you could look at them."

Squall turned to Rinoa. "Have you ever seen a dead body before?"

"Once…but I don't wanna talk about it," Rinoa said feeling a little creeped out by all the dead bodies that surrounded her.

As Squall looked at the bodies he saw no one familiar, he had about 3 more to look at. He took a step closer to where a body lay, his hands moved upwards and he slowly pulled the sheet to reveal a corpse. As soon as he looked at the face hundreds of long forgotten memories came back to him.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The young boy of eight hid nervously in a corner behind a box waiting for his companion to return to him. He dared not to look up to see what was happening in case he was spotted, so he waited pulling himself into a tighter ball away from the rest of the world. He tried to listen to see if he could hear her coming back, to hear her footsteps approaching but he couldn't hear anything due to all the loud noises surrounding him. The sound of gunshots and the screams and shouts of people echoed around the building.

Finally he heard footsteps coming towards where he was. It could be who he was waiting for, but what if it wasn't? Had he been seen? If he had been seen he would probably be killed right. Afraid, he hugged his knees harder and closed his eyes tighter. If he was caught, he wondered if death was painful or perhaps it would feel nice. His mouth went dry as the footsteps quickened and got closer. They stopped right in front of him and he felt the person sit beside him.

Slowly, he opened his eyes and lifted his head to see the person beside him and sighed in relief when he saw who it was.

"Ellone," he said. "I thought you was one of them."

The girl looked at him and smiled sweetly. "Sorry."

She lifted herself up slightly to see over the box, and then ducked back down. "Squall," she whispered. "I'm going to get you out of her but you have to be brave, okay?"

Squall nodded his head.

"Right, you see the corridor down there?" Ellone said pointing it out to him. "When I say so I want you to run as fast as you can down there. At the end of the corridor is a window that leads to the outside. Seifer's going to be waiting for you there, then I'll follow afterwards."

"Why don't we go together?"

"There's more chance of getting caught if we go together," she said, turning back to Squall. "Do you know what you have to do?"

Squall nodded his head a little nervously. Ellone looked over the top of the box. "Follow me," she said standing up. Squall followed behind her until she stopped and looked around again. "Ready?"

"Yes."

She turned to Squall and looked at him for a moment and then looked around once more. "Right Squall…Go!" she shouted.

Squall ran a few steps forward but then stopped and looked back at Ellone. "Don't look back Squall, run!" she shouted again.

The next few moments of his life seemed to be in slow motion, he ran as fast as he could to the end of the corridor, sure enough there was an open window with Seifer stood beside it waiting for Squall. From behind Squall a gunshot echoed around the room, Squall came to a stop, turning to see Ellone lying on the floor in a puddle of blood.

"Ellone," Squall shouted as he saw her body. He began to run back towards to her, but was quickly pulled back by Seifer to safety.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Squall?" Rinoa said looking at Squall a little worried.

Squall snapped back into reality and looked down at the body in silence.

"Is that her?" Rinoa asked.

Squall nodded his head. "I thought she was dead."

Rinoa fell silent not sure of what to say.

"You knew her, didn't you?" Rinoa finally said, feeling a little uncomfortable. She wasn't sure if she regretted coming here or if she was glad that she had come and made Squall see who this 'Autumn Ivers' really was.

Her knees began to feel weak and the world around here started to go blurry. A sharp pain ran through her brain, she held her head in her hands as it became worse. Scared of what was happening to her she looked up to see Squall, but he wasn't there; everything around her had disappeared and she was surrounded by darkness. Her head felt like it could explode when another wave of agonizing pain shot through her, as it did she let out a scream.

Rinoa lifted her head and she was back in the morgue again, but it wasn't all back to normal. Everything was blurry; the room seemed to be spinning from side to side. She could hear lots of voices and footsteps echoing through her head. She could hear two male voices talking and she could just make out what they were saying. Most of it was inaudible due to all the echoing in her head, but she heard the words 'mutant' and 'morgue'. The footsteps continued to sound, getting closer as time passed. Then everything went back to normal and she was back in the morgue again with the blurriness or the voices.

She felt someone's arms wrapped around her and looked up to see Squall looking concerned at her.

"What happened?" Rinoa said, suddenly realising she was sat on the floor. She tried to get back up but another wave of dizziness swept over her and she fell back to the ground again.

"You just collapsed on to the floor," Squall said helping her off the ground. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I just felt dizzy, I think." She heard footsteps coming outside the room. "Someone's coming."

"How do you know?" Squall asked.

"What do you mean how do I know? You can hear footsteps coming from outside."

Squall stopped still for a moment listening. "I can't hear anything."

Rinoa looked at Squall confused. The thought did cross her mind that maybe he was going deaf but because the footsteps sounded just outside the door she grabbed Squall, pulling them behind one of the beds, hidden.

They stayed there a few minutes in silence and finally two people entered the morgue. One of them was clearly a doctor, but the other Squall thought was clearly a stranger to the hospital. The doctor led him to the bed in which they had just been stood around.

"This is the mutant," the doctor said, revealing the body.

"Ah yes, I remember her know," the other man started. "Ellone Loire, she was one of the first made."

"You know her well, after all it has been 10 years, Commander Raijin."

"Yeah, I remember her well she was one of the main troublemakers back then, ya know. Thanks for showing me."

"Pleasures all mine, Sir."

The two men turned and left the room and the two climbed out of hiding. "Commander Raijin?" Squall said in thought.

"Do you know him?" Rinoa asked.

"He sounds and looks familiar but I'm not sure how I know him." Squall looked at his watch. "I've got to get back to work in a minute, we should get out of here."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Squall entered his home after a long boring day at work. He entered the living room to find Seifer, Zell and Quistis still putting the pieces together about the suicide. Squall sat down in an armchair.

"Squall, can you remember anyone's name who started with 'El' or something like that?" Seifer asked.

"It's Ellone."

"That's what crossed my mind but you know what happened."

"It is Ellone." Squall said again. "I went in the morgue today and saw her."

Seifer looked at Squall in surprise by two things, first because it was Ellone and second because he went into the morgue to look at the dead body.

"You went into the morgue?" Quistis exclaimed. "Where did you think up that crazy idea?"

"Rinoa," Squall said, but quickly regretted it, realising they didn't know about Rinoa knowing Squall was a mutant.

"Rinoa…does she know you're a mutant?" Seifer asked, a little angry.

"She found out by herself, I never told her."

"Oh, so it's alright for Squall to tell some girl he's just met but do they let me tell the girl in the library? NO!" Zell said, a little annoyed.

"Shut up Zell and anyway he's known Rinoa since he was a kid," Seifer said and then turned to Squall again. "Are you sure she's not going to tell anyway?"

"Positive. This may sound a little strange but she's basically a mutant herself."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know how but she was mutant powers but she's not a mutant," Squall said. "And today in the morgue, she knew someone was coming a few minutes before I could. She said she could hear footsteps when I couldn't."

"Is Rinoa the girl that lives with Selphie?" Quistis asked.

"Yeah," Seifer said. "How could she have mutant powers but not be a mutant?"

Authors note: I'm sooo sorry I haven't updated for ages but school work has been keeping me away from my fic and other personal issues! I'll make it up to you I promise! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed my story so far it really means so much to me! Oh and by the way so no one can get me done for copyright that little piece at the start of this chapter about the sun was kinda taken off this series called Taken. Don't sue! Thanks for reviewing again!


	9. Chapter 9 Misunderstood

Chapter 9 – Misunderstood

The young journalist walked up towards the brown door. Beyond this was the stern cold woman who was unfortunately his boss. He adjusted the hat, which sat, upon his head and then walked straight into her office without knocking, unlike any other fellow employee would do.

The young woman with silver hair turned around startled and then sighed when she saw who it was.

"Don't you ever think of knocking before you enter?" she said with annoyance.

"Oh lighten up a little Fuj, don't hate me because I'm the best you have," the cocky man said.

The woman rolled her eyes. "Kinneas, take your head out of your ass for once and do as you're told."

"Hey! That hurts, you know I'd never do anything to hurt my wonderful boss Fujin."

"Yeah, whatever," she said her arms folded. "I have something for you to do."

She walked over towards the back of the office and leant against her desk. "I need you to try and find out anything else about that suicide in Balamb. You have as long as it takes; try socialising with people. See if you can find out about anymore mutants living in the area, if any."

"Serious stuff, eh? Well you came to the right person to do the job."

Fujin let out a silent sigh because of the attitude of the man she had to deal with but made herself feel better by thinking that she had come to the right person as he would be gone for a while.

"Report back to me if you find out any information."

He nodded his head in thought. "This doesn't sound like the work of a journalist to me. Is this anything to do with that Commander guy that came here this morning?"

Fujin paused for a moment. "You better go home and pack, I've arranged a hotel for you to stay in and you can collect a train ticket to Balamb from the reception," she said ignoring his last comment.

"Okay," he said as he turned to leave.

"Oh and Irvine," Fujin called from behind him. "Don't mess this up."

~*~*~*~*~*~

The two young women chatted to each other inside the four walls of the grocery store. Since no one was inside the shop there was nothing else to do. Since she had learned about the girl Rinoa, Quistis took the advantage of this spare time to ask about her.

"I've never met Rinoa before, what's she like?"

Selphie turned to her friend smiling. "She's nice, I can't believe I still haven't introduced the two of you. I'm sure you'll get on like a house on fire."

Quistis nodded her head. "Do you know when I'll be able to see her?"

"Oh Quisty, Quisty, Quisty," Selphie said fiddling around with the cash register. "You don't have to worry about her, she's not going to steal Seifer from you…even if they did have a past."

Quistis rolled her eyes at her friend. "I know that, I just want to meet her, that's all. She's quite new here so she won't know that many people yet."

"Okay! And just in case the thought ever crossed your mind you don't have to worry. Besides she seems much more interested in Squall." Selphie said with a wink.

"Squall?" Quistis said, now interested in what was coming out of Selphie's mouth. "He hasn't really mentioned much about her but it'll be good if he has a female companion in his life. He's really not the social type."

"Exactly," Selphie said giggling.

The conversation was interrupted with the jingle of the bells when the shop door opened. A smile crept over the young mans face when he saw the two shop assistants by the counter. He walked up to them, his smile widening on his face.

"Hello beautiful," he said leaning on the counter. "It seems that it's my lucky day bumping into a stunner like you."

Quistis stared at him emotionless, not sure if that was a cheesy chat up line or just him being polite, in any case she wasn't in the mood for it.

"I've made you speechless, it's my looks isn't it?"

"Yeah, right…whatever," Quistis said, rolling her eyes.

She grabbed Selphie's arm and pulled her where she had just been standing. "Customer for you," she said walking away to stack some shelves. Selphie looked at Quistis who was walking away confused for a moment but then turned her attention to the customer that stood in front of her.

"Can I help?"

The grin grew yet even wider on his face. "Believe me you already have."

Selphie studied him for a moment. "Excuse me?"

Irvine cleared his throat. "It doesn't matter, could you tell me where the hotel is?"

"It's the next street on the left."

"Thank you…Selphie," Irvine said looking at her name tag. "By the way I'm Irvine."

Selphie smiled slightly. "It's nice to meet you Irvine."

"I'm new here and I don't know my way around here yet. Maybe you wanna come out with me sometime."

Selphie smiled to herself, was this guy really coming on to her this quick? "I might be washing my hair," she replied.

"Could you be persuaded?"

"Maybe," Selphie said, enjoying teasing this man.

"Well, I was thinking maybe we could go for a drink and introduce ourselves properly."

Selphie looked at the hopeful man that stood before her, she simply gave a look that said 'and?'

"And…how about I take you out for dinner?" he added.

"Meet me outside here at seven?"

"Sure," Irvine said. "Catch you later Selph."

Selphie watched as he left the shop, she heard laughing coming from behind her. She turned around to find Quistis, who had obviously listened to the whole conversation.

"You've known each other two minutes and you're already going on a date and he's calling you Selph?"

Selphie gave her friend a light push. "It's not a date okay, we're just getting to know each other as friends."

Quistis let out another laugh. "You saw how 'friendly' he was. Yeah, you're probably right, I'm sure he left here thinking 'that Selphie sure was a nice girl, wonder if we'll be friends?'"

~*~*~*~*~*~

Selphie sighed as Irvine offered to walk her home, not wanting to bruise his ego she reluctantly said yes. The 'getting to know each other' date had been a total bore, she knew Quistis was right; he was just one big flirt and never took anything seriously. Every attractive woman that had walked past in the restaurant had caught Irvine's eye, he even tried to chat up the waitress.

Selphie decided to use this time alone with him to find out about him. He'd asked question about her, but she had never got a chance to. There had been a long silence since they had begun walking, which was beginning to make her feel uncomfortable.

"What do you do for a living?" she asked.

"I'm a journalist at Timber."

Selphie stopped walking and studied the man who stood beside her. "You don't look like a journalist."

Irvine shrugged his shoulders and began walking again. "I don't like being stereotypical."

"Okay, why the cowboy sniper look?" she asked.

Irvine smiled. "Something I like to do in my spare time and the cowboy look attracts the women."

Selphie rolled her eyes. "If you say so."

"They never told me Balamb had such beautiful women."

"I noticed you discovered them in the restaurant," Selphie said sighing.

"Is that why you've been avoiding me? You thought I was checking out other women?" Irvine asked.

Selphie became quiet and a little embarrassed. "Well…yes."

Irvine smiled. "I just realised I said that Balamb had such beautiful women. What I meant to say was that there is only one woman in this town that's beautiful, when I was looking at them women I was thinking that none of them compared to you."

Selphie smiled. "Thank you." She wasn't sure if he was telling the truth or if that was just an excuse but he sure knew how to charm a woman.

"So tell me, what are you exactly doing in Balamb?"

Irvine panicked for a moment; he wasn't going to tell her the whole truth why he was here so he said the first thing that came to his head. "I'm here to write a story on the suicide."

"You mean that mutant girl that threw herself off the roof of the hospital?"

Irvine nodded his head. "I want to see if anyone knows anything more about mutants."

"It looks like you're in luck. My friends seem to be interested in mutants, I could introduce you to them sometime," Selphie said stopping outside her house.

"You will? Thanks a lot Selphie, it's a great help."

"No problem, just promise me you'll stop around the shop tomorrow."

"I promise."

"See you tomorrow then," Selphie said and then turned around to go into her house.

Irvine waved to her as she closed the door. He began to walk again and took out her mobile phone. He dialled the number and waited for the person to answer.

"Hello?"

"Hi Fujin, good news…"

Authors note: I know I say this at like the end of every chapter but I'm really sorry I take so long to update! I have a week off school at the moment so I promised myself I was going to put chapter nine up and I did, YAY! Oh I love each and every one of you who has reviewed my story. Your lucky I don't see any of you in real life cus if I did I'd poke each and every one of you! Pokey pokey! 50 reviews! 

Please review, I promise I won't poke you, I'll try and hold back… ^_^


	10. Chapter 10 Stole

Authors Note: Sorry for taking so long to update! This chapter may seem a little weird; it takes place on the same night as the last chapter but concentrates more on Rinoa and Squall. You'll be pleased to know, it does contain Squinoa! Yay! 

Chapter 10 – Stole

Rinoa studied herself in the mirror, the same question had been lingering inside her for years. She looked no different to any other human, there was no extra ear lurking in some irrelevant place. She didn't see the point of this, it didn't matter how long she stared at her reflection in the mirror, she still wouldn't know if she was a mutant or not. It was a suspicion she had when she was younger, but in time she forgot about these strange powers she had.

Her forgotten memories had only come back since she had found out about Squall. For some reason she wished she were a mutant, it was probably to get an easy explanation of her powers. She wasn't sure what the reason was why she wanted to be a mutant, but sometimes she thought it was to do with Squall.

Rinoa was distracted from her thoughts when she heard her door open and Selphie stepped in.

"How do I look?" she said pretending to be a model walking down a catwalk. She wore a denim skirt that went down to her knees with a short slit on either side, knee high boots, a red V-neck top and a long black jacket over the top that reached just below the knees.

"You look perfect. Who's the lucky guy then?"

Selphie's smile grew wide until she looked like she was going to explode with excitement, she began jumping up and down and let out a little shriek.  "He's called Irvine and he's really cute." She looked at the watch on her wrist. "Sorry, I gotta go I'm alright late."

"Have a nice time," Rinoa called as Selphie quickly left the house. She turned back to her mirror and sighed as she watched herself once more. She opened once of her drawers and rummaged around the back of it until she found what she was looking for. Out of the drawer she pulled out a small leather box, and opened it to reveal a silver ring with the engraving of a creature that resembled a lion. She'd had the ring for almost two years now and it wasn't even hers, when she first found it lying on the ground she'd promised herself to give it back to the owner. Unfortunately when she tried to give it back, the owner had left without trace. She decided she should give it back now so she put the ring back into the box and placed it in her pocket, then left for her destination.

~*~*~*~*~

"Squall, hi, I was just passing by and wondered if you was doing anything."

Squall looked at Rinoa for a moment and then said, "I'm not doing anything really. Do you wanna come inside"

Rinoa could feel herself getting nervous, even though she'd known this man that stood in front of her for quite some time now. "I was wondering if you would want to go for a walk with me or something?" she forced herself to say. "If you don't want to you don't have to."

"I'll grab my jacket," Squall said softly before disappearing back into his house and a few minutes later reappearing.

"Where do you want to go?" Squall asked following Rinoa's lead.

"Anywhere quiet I guess, I'm in no rush anyway," she said. "Selphie's on a date with some guy she just met and there's nothing to do."

Squall gave a slight smile as a reply and they both continued following the path that was spread out before them. Although conversation was little, Rinoa enjoyed the time she was spending with Squall. Sometime she'd find herself thinking about him at night, although she'd tell herself she didn't, she knew that she had started to develop strong feelings towards this man. Sometimes she wished that they were more than just friends but she never got her hopes up, in case she got hurt.

They walked up past Balamb hotel and down to an area for fisherman, although there weren't as many here at this time as it was getting dark. Squall sat down on an empty bench looking out towards the sea; Rinoa took the opportunity to sit next to him. Neither of them spoke for a while until Rinoa broke the silence.

"How old were you when you first moved here?"

"Sixteen."

Rinoa turned her head towards Squall. "Why leave Deling City so suddenly?"

Although Rinoa already knew too much about him, he didn't want her to know everything he had done and why. She'd already got herself too involved; he didn't want her to get hurt so he stayed quiet.

Rinoa sighed, she knew she was asking things she thought she knew the answer to, but she wanted to make sure she was right.

"When we went in the morgue the other day and that Commander guy came in, I knew I'd seen him somewhere before but I couldn't remember where," she said hoping Squall would talk to her if she took a different approach around it. "It only hit me today, at the end of our last year of school he started hanging around and asking students questions.

"He was trying to find us," Squall said quietly.

Rinoa smiled slightly but soon put back her serious expression. "You left early on the prom night, I saw you and Seifer running out of the school grounds, I tried to catch up but you had already gone."

Squall turned his attention to Rinoa. "He found us and he was going to kill us. Seifer came to the prom to get me and we left that night."

Rinoa shuffled through her pockets and then held her hand out with a silver ring on the palm of her hand. "You left in such a rush you forgot something."

Squall took the ring from her hand and studied it for a moment. "You kept my ring all this time?" he asked a little surprised.

Rinoa nodded her head with a smile. "It's a nice ring, I made sure I wasn't going to lose it."

"You took better care of it than me," he said grabbing her hand and placed the ring back in her hand. "Keep it."

Rinoa looked at Squall surprised. "I can't have this, it's yours."

"Not anymore," Squall said.

Rinoa looked at the ring then at Squall, she'd only just realised that they were inches apart from each other. Before she realised what she was doing the gap between them closed and their lips met as they embraced in a passionate kiss.

~*~*~*~*~

Zell checked every room in the house one last time but found no trace of Squall. Tired, panicked and annoyed he locked the house door with the key that Seifer had given him. Zell knew what had happened was serious, Seifer never trusted Zell with anything, and now he was giving him his keys to look for Squall?

He'd been searching around Balamb for nearly an hour now and he still hadn't found him. It was as if he had been taken as well. He quickly shook this thought off as he ran in a direction he not yet been.

Finally after searching the small town he saw the person he was looking for with a raven-haired woman.

"Squall, I've been looking for you all over the place," Zell said running towards his friend. "Something bad happened, I've got no time to explain now. Just follow me."

There was a serious tone in his voice, one that was rarely used by Zell. Squall followed his friend around the town of Balamb until they entered a block of apartments. He stopped when he saw Seifer on the floor next to a familiar apartment. Squall doubted Seifer even noticed they'd come because he looked to deep in thought. He looked like he was panicking and worried, two emotions that were hardly shown by Seifer.

"Squall," Rinoa said quietly, when he turned his attention towards her she pointed to the door of an apartment. 

Parts of the wooden door were damaged and broken, as if someone had pried the door open. Squall pushed the door open and stepped inside the apartment; there were tables and furniture toppled over, glass smashed over the floor and many other items carelessly thrown about the place. He could hear the radio playing in the kitchen; this wasn't as tampered with as the other room but the window was smashed. Squall looked at the sharp pieces of glass around the frame of the window. Someone had obviously come in from the window, as there was wet blood on the glass.

He walked out of the kitchen and back into the main room, he didn't understand what this had to do with anything. Why had Zell shown him this?

He heard a crunch from under his foot, he looked down to find he'd stood on a broken picture frame. It wasn't until he took his foot away that he realised what this was all about. The woman in the picture was someone familiar, he knew the woman who owned this apartment.

Quistis.

A/n: I know this is gonna sound really cheap but anyway here goes. I recently posted my first ever story, which wasn't final fantasy 8! Shock, horror I know, I even surprised myself on that one. Anyway after taking three hours of deep concentration and serious typing I finally finished it and posted it on Friday. The depressing thing was I've only had one review. Thank you to Cutterin. It's a story on the series 'Taken' please if you have any spare time can you read and review it for me. Even if you've never seen it you can review and say something like 'didn't understand what the hell was going on but I thought the story was written…' and I'll leave it to you to tell me how it is. It really means so much to me if you do review it for me, infact if you do you'll get a special mention in an authors note at the top of my next chapter of this story. ^_^  Thank you! 

Big thank you to:

The Angel of The Lion

Starlight

Jenza

Phoenix Blade

CTHKSI

Sandra Leonhart

Sephiroth 

Lorelei 


	11. Chapter 11 The Darkness At The End Of Th...

Chapter 11- The Darkness At The End Of The Line

Zell looked over at Seifer at little worried of what was happening. What was going to happen now? Since they had left Quistis' apartment they had gone back home. Seifer had sat the whole night in the same posture, it was morning now and he still hadn't moved. Neither he nor Squall knew what was going through his head, but guessed it was best they left him to have time for the night before to sink in. None of them was sure what to expect in the near future, how could they get their good friend back? 

The silence was broken when there was a loud knock at the door. Squall stood from his position leaning against a wall and went to open the door. As soon as he opened it he was nearly trampled over by Selphie running inside with Rinoa slowly following behind. 

"Seifer, do you know where Quistis is? Her apartment has been broken into" Selphie said sounding a little worn out from running all the way over to his home. She studied Seifer for a moment when he didn't answer noticing that he wasn't being his usual self. It seemed as though he didn't even hear her. "Seifer, where's Quistis?"  She said sternly this time, something defiantly wasn't right. 

"I don't know" was Seifer's slow reply, barely audible to the others around him. 

Selphie looked at everyone else around her, she could tell by their faces something wasn't right. Everyone knew something, but they wouldn't say. "What the hells going on here?" she said starting to feel more worried about Quistis than her apartment. "Someone just tell me" 

"They can't tell you because we're not sure either" Seifer said, "Quistis is gone"

"Don't worry Selph" Zell said putting a hand on her shoulder "we'll find her"

Still confused by all that was going on she nodded her head though she wasn't sure exactly what he meant by 'we'll find her'. She let out a sigh accepting what was happening although she didn't know what was happening, she knew that the rest of them had secrets, which they kept away from her. A thought once crossed her mind that they didn't trust her but she only hoped that time would let all be revealed. "I guess I'll go then," she said quietly as she started to turn and leave but then stopped and looked back at her friends. "I know that you don't tell me everything, but please don't keep this secret from me. Quistis is my friend as well, I'm worried about her" 

Seifer stood stiffly from the place her had been sat for so long and walked closer to Selphie "We know you're worried about her. Once we find her, you'll be the first to know"

Selphie smiled at him, before leaving his house. Somewhere inside her doubted what he had just said.

~*~*~*~

Seifer slowly placed an article on the suicide of Ellone on the table in front of him. First Ellone and now Quistis had been taken away from him by someone. He couldn't think of anyone who would have a reason for taking Quistis away like that. The loud ring of the phone disturbed him from his thoughts; he stood up and took the phone off the hook.

"Hello?" He said as he put the phone to his ear. 

"Number 421006, otherwise known as Seifer" came a voice from the other end of the phone. 

Seifer stood there startled for a moment, 421006 was the code number he was given when he was born…

There was a laugh from the other end of the phone "I take it I'm right then, this is Seifer?"

"Yes" he said quietly.

"I've been looking a long time for you." Said the mysterious voice "I failed last time when I tried to exterminate all of you, but some got away. I decided to protect the innocent people and track down the escapees to kill them myself."

"You've taken Quistis, haven't you?" Seifer said as panic shot through him. When the others heard Seifer's comment they came closer to him with worried looks on their faces. 

"Clever boy" came the voice on the other end of the line "I'm going to make a deal with you, it's risking your girlfriends life here so I'd listen closely. If you do something for me, I'll let pretty Quistis go and leave you alone. You give something for me that I want, I'll give something to you that you want" 

"What do you want?" Seifer asked still a little surprised by what this man was saying.

"I need some information, you better get a pen and paper ready so you can do this successfully and not get arrested"

Seifer got a piece of paper with a pen " Okay" he said, "What do you want me to do"

~*~*~*~

Squall pulled the car up at the back of the building from the destination that Seifer had been given. "Are you sure its safe?" Squall said to Seifer who sat in the passenger seat beside him.

"I don't know" Seifer said checking he had all the information "but I don't really have a choice do I?" 

"I guess not"

Seifer stepped out of the car "I'll be out in about ten minutes"

Squall looked at Seifer "Have fun" he said sarcastically before Seifer slammed the door shut and went to the back entrance of the building. 

When he got there he took out the piece of paper and typed in the code, which had been given. The light turned green meaning the door had been unlocked; cautiously Seifer stepped inside the building and closed the door behind him. Once he was inside he followed the instructions, which he had been given. He reached to the top of the largest filing cabinet where there was a key card just like the man had said. Seifer couldn't help thinking that this man had set everything up for him as he opened the next door and ran down the corridor. At the end of the corridor it split up into two different ways, on the left hand side there was a security guard with his back facing Seifer. Luckily he was walking to a security room, as soon as he was out of sight Seifer quickly entered a room using the key card he had picked up earlier. He smiled slightly as he realised that there had been a 'power cut', he thought back to earlier in the day when the man had told him that he would shut the main power down so that he wouldn't be seen on the security cameras. Seifer had never realised that this man was serious. In the room there were shelves after shelves full of files, luckily put in alphabetical order. Quickly he scanned the shelves until he found the 'G' shelf and pulled out the numbered file he needed, inside was the disk, which he had been asked to get. Quickly he put the disk inside his pocket and placed the file back in place. 

He exited the door, which he had come into only to find himself standing face to face with a security guard. The guard immediately asked for help on his radio as Seifer pushed him out of the way to get out of the building. Behind him he saw the same security guard chasing after him, he decided that he had no choice and so hit the security guard knocking him unconscious on the floor. Seifer went as fast as he could through the doors he came from, looking back he saw a few more security guards chasing after him. Finally he ran out of the exit and jumped into the car, which Squall was in. 

"Drive" Seifer said as soon as he got into the car. 

Authors note: Yay another chapter complete, I tried to update quicker this time! Sorry if its really badly written but its quite hard to write someone breaking in a building. I also never mention what the building is because honestly I don't know myself! Its some sort of science laboratory place where they keep secret government information if that makes sense. I got confused as well!

Thank you to Phoenix Blade who reviewed 'Somewhere Between The Stars'!

Also big smiley thank you to-

Lorelei  =)

Jenza  =) (I like your website! ^_^)

Shattered Sword  =)

FF9 Zidane  =) 

Phoenix Blade =) =) (you get two cus you reviewed my other story! Hehe)

Sandra Leonhart  =)

Mariko =)

The Angel Of The Lion =) 


	12. Chapter 12 Misguided

Chapter 12 Misguided 

Squall and Seifer were met by Zell and Rinoa as soon as they got back to their home, all of them relieved that nothing bad had happened to them. Spookily a few minutes after they were in the house the phone rang. Seifer went to answer, as the others listened intently at what was being said.

"He wants us to give the disk to him tomorrow at 10 in the train station," Seifer said after he had put the phone down.

"Has he given any clue to who he is?" Zell asked.

"No," Seifer said, shaking his head. "But he has obviously planned all of this out and he knows my code number."

"What's that?" Rinoa asked.

"It's the number they give you when we was made," Squall explained. "They mainly called us by out number instead of our name."

"Okay," Rinoa said. "Does Selphie know?"

Seifer looked at her confused but then realised what she was asking. "No, you're the only person who knows," he said, shooting a glance at Squall.

"Why don't you tell her? She already knows you're keeping something from her."

"I realise and that's the way I want it to stay," Seifer said, realising he had said it harsher than it was meant to sound.

Rinoa looked at him in shock for a moment. "Seifer, she's upset and I think she's starting to think that none of us trust her," she said raising her voice. "Do you trust her?"

Seifer stayed quiet, he'd never actually asked himself if he would trust her with this type of information before. He'd always taken it for granted that no one knew.

"Answer me," Rinoa said more sternly this time.

"I don't know, okay?" Seifer shouted, standing up and walking out of the room.

Guilt quickly shot through Rinoa and soon enough she found herself following him to apologise. "Seifer I'm really sorry," she said as she caught up with him.

Seifer shook his head. "Forget it. I've just got a lot of things on my mind."

"I know and I'm sorry," Rinoa said sympathetically. "But I am worried about Selphie."

Seifer stayed quiet for a moment then said, "She might not like the truth, the reason we don't tell anyone is because we don't know how they will react."

Rinoa nodded her head. "I wish it wasn't like this."

"That makes two of us."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Seifer stood just inside the train station with Squall, Zell and Rinoa behind him. They'd wanted to come just in case he needed any help or if anything happened. He let out a sigh; he only hoped that sometime soon Quistis would be coming back with him safe.

The jingle of his phone startled him slightly, quickly he answered it knowing who it was. "You got the disk?" came a voice from the other end.

"Only if you have Quistis," he replied coldly.

Seifer heard a faint woman's voice call his name, which he knew only too well. "Give her back to me and you can have the disk."

"Quistis did you hear that?" came the man's voice. "Once he gives me the disk you can go. He's at the main entrance waiting for you."

"I said you give me Quistis first then you get your disk," Seifer said sternly.

"Sorry, but things have to be my way. If you don't want to do it my way then you're going to have to find a way to prove you're not a mutant."

Seifer gritted his teeth. "Bastard."

There was a little laugh from the other end of the phone. "I take it things will be my way then, you do have brains after all. To the left of you there's a row of empty chairs, put the disk on them."

Awkwardly, Seifer walked to the row of chairs and placed the disk on one of them.

"Good. Quistis you can go now, they're right over there," the man said to Quistis before hanging up.

Seifer looked around the crowds of people anxiously to find Quistis "She's coming" he said to the others "Can you see her?"

They stepped further in the station scanning the area around them looking for Quistis. Seifer looked around him and something just clicked in his mind. He'd left the disk unattended. "Go back and get the disk," he said to his friends as he ran back as fast as he could to find the disk.

Once he got there he could have kicked himself for being so careless. Just as he had expected, there was no disk.

"Bloody bastard" Seifer shouted not caring about the passers by giving him strange looks.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Why did you make me do all that for nothing?" Seifer screamed down the phone. It had been a few hours since they had returned from the train station with no Quistis.

The man simply laughed at Seifer's outburst "I hope you're not angry with me" he said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Of course I'm angry" Seifer shouted once more "I thought we had a deal"

"We do, I just wanted to know how badly you wanted her back. Think of it as a test"

"I'm not a kid so I don't need these stupid tests" Seifer commented "Of course I want Quistis to be back, I've done something you want like you said. Now give me Quistis back and stop messing me about"

"I'm glad you want Quistis back" the man said with a smile "but tell me something, when I'm gone do you really think you'll go the rest of your lives without anyone knowing about your little secret?"

"We'll get by" 

"Something inside me doesn't believe you, but just as long as you keep believing that's all that matters. Now I know your serious about getting her back I'd like to express to you how serious I am in all of this. Check your doorstep"

Although Seifer was suspicious at what the man was telling him to do, he could only comply. He stepped to his front door and slowly opened it.

"Can you see a brown envelope?" the man asked.

"Yes" Seifer said picking it up and closing the door behind him. Slowly he opened it up and took out a piece of paper. On the piece of paper was a picture of him from the night before when he had gone to get the disk. "How did you get this?" Seifer asked panicking.

"I thought you might like my present, I have a copy just the same as yours with me. This is how serious I am, you try anything and I can get the government going after you by tonight. Now I hope you have a lovely evening and I'll talk to you tomorrow" the man said before hanging up the phone with a smirk on his face.   

Authors note: Sorry is this chapter is short and rubbish! Life's really starting to suck for me at times but I decided to put this chapter up today to let you know that I am indeed still alive.

Review if you wish. 


	13. Chapter 13 Shadows

Authors note: Thanks for all of the lovely reviews everyone! Sorry about the last chapter I've just been having a bad time with school and friends recently, but I'm over it now and I've recently turned one year older. I'm now 15 ^_^

Okay, enjoy…

Chapter 13- Shadows

This one world vision  
Turns us in to compromise  
What good's religion  
When it's each other we despise  
Damn the government  
Damn the killing  
Damn the lies

~ 'Sleeping With Ghosts' Placebo~

"Are you going to tell me what you want from me today?" Seifer asked getting annoyed with this mans attitude.

There was a long pause at the other end of the line, the only sound was the breathing of the man "Since I'm in a good mood today I'll give you a straight answer" the man started  "I think its about time we met each other face to face, what do you say?"

Seifer was shocked "You mean actually see you instead of you ordering me to do things down the phone? I'd love to" 

"It's a date then" the man said sarcastically " you have work to go to, lets make it tomorrow"

Seifer wasn't exactly sure whether or not to trust in meeting up with this man but as long as he would get Quistis back he didn't care. "Your going to give me back Quistis tomorrow?"

"I'll have no more use for her by the end of tomorrow" he answered "make sure your friends come along too, including the girl who knows your little secret" 

"Okay, where do you want to meet?" Seifer asked.

"I'll send you the details later on today," he said "Until tomorrow then"

Seifer placed the phone down with a little sigh, now he would have to face a day as a psychiatrist. Someone who helped people with their problems…was that really him? The thought had crossed his mind many times but it was what he seemed to be good at for some reason. 

A knock sounded at his door and he called for his patient to come in. The same thing each time, surely people knew that life was just like a war ground filled with land mines. When your younger there are just a few, but as you grow older the ground becomes swarmed with them and your always being careful not to step on one.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"How's Seifer doing?" Rinoa asked Zell as he was placing odd objects onto the shelves of his shop. 

"He's as moody as usual but is quieter" he said, "I think he just wants Quistis back…but don't we all" he finished.

  Rinoa studied his serious expression turn into his usual happy-go-lucky face. "I hope she'll come back, for Seifer's sake" 

Zell gave Rinoa a quick smile before rummaging through a box and pulling out more devices to stock his shelves with "Yeah me too, and anyway 'You know who' hasn't given us anymore mystery calls for a while. Or if he has, Seifer hasn't been telling us" 

Their conversation was ended when the bells on the top of the shop door sounded which revealed Squall. He stepped inside casual with his usual serious face on. "I've just spoken to Seifer" he said "the man wants us to meet him tomorrow" 

"It looks like I spoke too soon about our little friend" Zell said to Rinoa before turning his attention back to Squall "You mean actually in person?" The look Squall gave Zell's answered his question for him. "Are you sure we can trust him? He might be planning something which could endanger us," Zell said a little taken back.

  "What other choice do we have?" Squall said "Seifer wants to go through with it"

"When are you going to see him?" Rinoa asked.

"Tomorrow" Squall answered.

Once again more bells sounded from the doors as some customers entered the shop and their conversation came to an end. 

"We'll talk later" Squall said to Zell before turning to leave with Rinoa following after him. 

"Don't you think its dangerous for Seifer to meet him, he could get hurt" Rinoa said a little tired from running to catch up with Squall.

"He's not going on his own, all of us have to go" Squall said.

"What if it's a trap and he's already told the government who you are?" Rinoa said coming to a stop "Then what?"

Squall also stopped walking and turned to face Rinoa "We have no other choice" he said, "To keep Quistis safe we can only do as he wishes. I'm not sure if I can trust him either but it's a choice we have to take" 

Rinoa took a few steps closer to Squall and placed her hand on his arm "I don't want anyone to get hurt, especially you"

Squall wrapped his arm around her waist "No one should get hurt if we stay together"

Rinoa nodded her head "I hope your right" she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and they walked the rest of the way back to Squall's home in silence. 

*~*~*~*~*~*~

Irvine stood against the cold, stonewall and looked at his watch, which had been the fifth time this minute. He was really beginning to hope that Selphie was going to show up. He looked through the crowd of people going to their own destinations in front of him. The feeling that soon one of them faces would be Selphie made him feel happy inside but it scared him that he felt like this when he'd only known her a few days. Scanning the crowd once again a face in the crowd surprised him. 

"Fujin?" he said surprised by her turning up out of the blue "What are you doing here?"

She pushed her silver hair back behind her ear and looked up to the tall man who stood in front of her "I've come to deliver you a message" she said. She took a piece of folded paper out of her pocket and placed it in front of Irvine.

Irvine took the paper from her hand and studied which looked to be an address on it. 

"He wants to meet you tomorrow" Fujin said, " I don't know what it is about but he said that after tomorrow you are to leave here immediately" 

Authors note: Okay please don't hate me for all the crapiness of this chapter but I've kind of got writers block at the moment on this story. An idea for another story has come to me and whenever I think of what will happen in the upcoming chapters of this story I get lost in what will happen in my new story, but I have promised myself that I will not start my new story until I have finished this one. I'm not going to give up! ^_^

Big thank you to:

The Angel Of The Lion

Sandra Leonhart

Phoenix Blade

CTHKSI

Lorelei

Bn431

Jenza 


	14. Chapter 14 Piecing Together

Chapter 14- Piecing together

"Irvine are you sure you won't be too long?" Selphie said as Irvine pulled up outside a shabby building. 

"Yes, I'm just going to go inside and have a little chat with one of my colleagues and then I'll be out in no time so we can catch that movie" he said giving Selphie a wink. 

Nodding her head Selphie looked through the car window to were Irvine was supposed to be meeting his colleague. There was a light drizzle of rain falling with a cool wind, through the weather Selphie saw an old abandoned building, which looked like it hadn't been used for over a decade. "Are you even sure this is the right place?" she asked looking back over to Irvine.

"Its what he said" Irvine turned around and looked at the building, which was falling to pieces himself "I've heard he's a strange guy, it'll be the right place"

Selphie looked shocked "You've never even met this guy before? I thought you said you worked together. I don't think you should be meeting someone you've never seen before in a shabby old building" 

Irvine flashed Selphie one of his smiles "It'll be fine, I won't get raped or anything" he said before closing the car door and heading into the building. 

Once inside Irvine studied the fading wallpaper which had been torn in some areas, there was also a strong smell of dust which tingled the inside of his nose making him feel like he was going to sneeze. He wondered why anyone in the world would want to meet up here, feeling the sense that Selphie was right and he probably had gone to the wrong place he turned and went to exit the building once more. He stopped in his tracks when he heard footsteps behind him and turned around to see a tall, medium built man, although he was hard to make out through the lack of light.

"Kinneas" hollered the mans voice.

"Yes?" Irvine answered a little nervous by the atmosphere around him. 

"The names Rajin" he said extending a hand towards him, which was accepted by Irvine. "It's nice to have finally met you after all this time, Fujin's told me a lot about you. Please follow me," he said turning on his heals and walking deeper into the building. Irvine quickly followed after him up a flight of stairs and down a corridor. 

"What exactly did you want me for?" Irvine asked "because I have a date in the car and I don't want to leave her waiting"

"I thought I told you to come alone" Rajin said "You can't just bring strangers with you, ya know" 

"Yeah well I already had plans made and Fuj only told me a couple of hours ago" Irvine said.

"A couple of hours is enough time to cancel your plans," he said simply whilst opening a door leading to a room which, inside had a sofa and a few other objects inside the room. "Please sit down, I have a few more guests which should be arriving soon." Soon after Rajin closed the door behind him leaving Irvine alone for the time being, he took a key out of his pocket and locked the door. He knew Irvine was a person who couldn't be trusted.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Is everyone ready?" Seifer asked. The silence from the others around him gave him the right answer. Slowly he opened the door revealing the inside of what could be a dangerous night. 

"Lets meet the bastard then" Zell said following Seifer inside the room.  Everything seemed so quiet and none of them knew what was to come of the next hour or so. 

The sudden noise of Seifer's phone ringing startled everyone spreading a strong sensation of adrenaline around their body. Sighing of relief Seifer took out his phone and placed it by his ear, something inside him told him who it was. "Hello?" 

"Good evening" came the mans voice. "I see you've made it safely inside my home. And you have everyone with you like a asked, someone has been revising" 

"How did you know we were all here?" Seifer asked feeling a little uncomfortable with this man knowing when he entered the building.

"I watched you through the window" he said simply " I suppose you want me to speak to you face to face now?"

"Of course, that's the reason we came here" 

"Good. If you look to your left there's a flight of stairs, go up them and go into the first door on your right. I'll be waiting for you," he said before hanging up the phone.  

Seifer looked around at his friends once more with worried expressions on their faces. "Follow me," he said leading them to where he had been directed to go. 

Squall slowly followed Seifer up the stairs, along with Zell and Rinoa behind him. He wasn't sure how Seifer could trust this man so much, but he knew just as well as the rest of them that they all had no choice. A hand grasped around his and he looked back to find Rinoa looking at him a little nervous, he gave her hand a squeeze for reassurance although it wasn't much. He was as worried as anyone else at how the man had known about Rinoa being with them, other thoughts were also going around his mind like why he would ask her to come with them since she was an amateur in all what they were doing. He felt it wasn't right that she should get involved in all this hiding from the government. He looked at her in the face and their eyes locked, for some reason it felt like she could look straight inside his soul. When he had this feeling he had a sense of security like a young child with their mother, although this feeling was quite new to Squall he was in no rush to wish it away. She gave him a slight smile and carried on walking until they reached outside a door. 

Seifer quickly opened the door, he couldn't take all this waiting around anymore and he just wanted it over and done with. He looked through the darkness of the room and saw a mans figure sat by a window looking outside. Seifer took another few steps inside the room but stopped when the man turned around to look at them.

"Its nice to finally meet you" the man said walking to the side of a wall and turning on a light. "That's better I can see you now, soldiers"

"Soldiers?" Seifer repeated to himself.

"I bet its been a long time since any of you got called that, now days everyone just calls you mutants. I bet that must be a horrible burden to live with," he said studying each one of the four people in front of him. 

"You…you look familiar" Zell said studying the man; he turned to his friends who also had the same look on their faces, save Rinoa.  

"I'm glad that you recognise me," he said "Its nice to see that you haven't gone completely stupid since you left. You may remember me, since I was the one that taught you how to fight while you were with us"

"Rajin" Squall said through gritted teeth. "You're the one that took Quistis?"

"Yes, I suppose that you'd like her back" he said walking out of the room leaving the rest of them wondering what he was doing, a few moments later they heard a woman's cry and he returned dragging a weak Quistis by the arm and sat her down on a chair. "She hasn't eaten in a for a while, I was always terrible at remembering to feed my pets when I was a kid." He said with a little smile. 

Seifer, forgetting what situation he was in walked towards Quistis but was stopped in his tracks when a gun was pointed at his head. "Your forgetting something, I'm the one in charge here" Rajin said. Seifer stepped back and glared angrily at Rajin.

"What do you want from us?" he said.

"Can you remember all them years ago when you were all supposed to be sent to them extermination camps? I was the one that made the order, to kill all of the mutants because we didn't need them anymore. It would have been so simple if invalids like you hadn't escaped from us. So for the rest of my life I have been searching for mutants who escaped and killed them myself. It's a shame that the last thing I killed was a mutants baby, I could have killed the mother but thought it would teach her a lesson in life if I killed something which seemed to mean so much to her. It seems my idea worked, since it was only in the newspaper a while ago about how she threw herself off the top of the hospital"

"You mean Ellone?" Zell said a little taken back by this new information "she had a baby?"

Rajin nodded his head "Indeed, but I didn't invite you all here to discuss this. Are you wondering why I asked you to come with them?" he said facing Rinoa.

"Yes" Rinoa said speaking out for the first time since they arrived "Why did you want me, I'm not like them"

Rajin sighed and the edges of his lips lifted into a small smile "I take it your father never told you about your mothers little secret then" he said "but then again, he didn't know because when your father hears something he doesn't like he refuses to listen to any explanation"

Rinoa looked at Rajin confused "What do you mean my mothers secret?" 

"I'd hate to tell you this Rinoa but you'd be dead today if your mother didn't take you to us when you was a baby" he said, "when you were born you had an illness which couldn't be treated because no one knew what it was. The doctors told your mother that they could do nothing and you would probably die. So she came to scientists who might be able to do something to help you, scientists who created your little friends here. It turns out the only thing they could think of doing was injecting you with mutant blood."

"I don't believe you" Rinoa said in shock.

"You don't have to believe me, but it's the truth. She took the risk in knowing that you might have side effects, such as obtaining mutant abilities."

Rinoa turned attention away from Rajin and look at Squall who looked just as confused as she was, no matter how much she told her self that he was just lying…it made sense.  There was no way she could have just been born with the same abilities as a mutant.

"Your father was so angry when he found out that she had come to us" Rajin carried on "I have a bad habit of letting things slip out of my mouth at the wrong time. He was so angry he told her to leave you and him alone and never return. And she never did come back did she, because she was in a car accident that night and died. That's the problem I have with your father, he seems to forget that once you say something you can't take it back"

A single tear rolled down Rinoa's face, as she understood everything that happened. "He was the reason she died"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Selphie looked at her watch and sighed to herself, he had been inside the building for nearly an hour and he said he'd only be a few minutes. She stepped out of the car and into the building in which Irvine had entered all that time ago, once inside she searched around the creepy building and went up a flight of stairs. When she reached the second floor she had a big urge to run downstairs again when she heard loud banging but stopped in her tracks when she heard a mans voice which seemed to sound like Irvine. 

"Irvine where are you?" she said wondering around searching where the banging was coming from. She stooped outside a door and tried to turn the handle but it seemed the door was locked. "Irvine, the doors locked" she said with a little smile on her face enjoying the moment. 

"I know Selph" came Irvine's voice through the door "Can you see a key or something?"

Selphie looked around her but there was nothing which she could see that would open the door apart from a long piece of metal "Irvine, don't worry I'm going to get you out of here" she said picking up the piece of metal. She stuck the metal bar in the side of the door and with a hard shove she pushed it towards the wall to prize the door open. 

An amazed Irvine stepped out of the room and looked at Selphie "Where did you learn how to do that?" he asked.

"I'm not just a pretty face" she said walking away from him but stopped when she thought she heard people talking from somewhere else in the abandoned building "Do you hear voices?" she asked.

Irvine stood still for a moment and listened to his surroundings "Yes, I think its coming from down here" he said walking down a corridor. Selphie quickly followed after him and they found themselves walking into a room with all of her other friends.

"What are you lot doing here?" she asked looking at each person confused "and who was the mean person who locked Irvine in the room down the hall?"

"I believe that was me" Rajin said "Thank you for helping me to find these mutants, Irvine"

Irvine looked at him shocked at his last comment "I didn't help you find them" he said noticing angry looks coming from three other people around him "I have nothing to do with this" he said in his defence.

"That sort of attitude isn't going to be good when the world thanks you for helping me kill them" Rajin said.

"Mutants?" Selphie said to herself confused at everything what was happening. She looked at Seifer "What's he talking about none of you are…" she stopped herself when she realised everything.  

"You thought all of these were your friends?" Rajin said with a smile on his face "they're nothing but filthy mutants, I'm surprised you're still alive"

"Selphie don't listen to him," Seifer shouted glaring at Rajin "Leave her out of this"

"Oh I'm going to enjoy this" Rajin said getting his gun out once more "You remember what I told you about how I killed Ellone's baby to teach her a lesson. I think I better do the same thing to you, perhaps it'll teach you to follow orders and not escape when your supposed to die" he aimed the gun at Quistis and the next few moments were filled with the sounds of screams and gun fire.

Authors note: Oh no! Is Quistis dead? You'll have to find out in the next chapter. Everyone has been moaning at me to write long chapters and this one is over 2000 words long, is that enough for you? Its taken me two days to write, but I enjoyed it so thanks! ^_^

Thank you to- Paper-doll, Lorelei, maz, Jenza, Phoenix blade, M.O.M.O angelic, Sandra Leonhart, Shattered sword, The Angel Of The Lion.

I hope I spelt all of those right hehe.

REVIEW!!! 


	15. Chapter 15 Not This Time

Chapter 15- Not This Time 

The days recently just seemed to be mixed into one long, never ending day. She wasn't sure how long she had been away from her friends. All she could remember of the last few days of her life were the dullness of the room. Even in day there was hardly any light apart from one stream of light coming through a high window. Then she'd been dragged out of the room and onto a chair. Her eyes were finding it difficult to focus as they were so used to the dark, the world around was a daze because she hadn't moved around for so long. The wound on her head which was once wet with blood, now felt dry and left a scab on the top of her head where he had hit her with some sort of object. 

She could vaguely see people in the room and moulded voices were echoing around her head. Sometimes she thought she recognized the voices, but she couldn't make out who all of the voices belonged to. Once or twice she had heard a mans voice, someone who she was very fond of. She was sure it was Seifer she could hear through the mist of her head. 

If it weren't for the chair that held her up she would have collapsed on the floor long ago, her knees felt shaky and weak. Her arms just simply dangled facing the ground. So many scared and angry voices were going through her mind but she could only make out few words of what the people were saying. Then suddenly there were shouting voices and screams. Then she heard a gun shot.

A wet substance landed on her face. Still unaware of what was going on she tried to open her eyes but found that they were still blurry. Blinking a few times more she found that the world around her become a little clearer and she saw blood on her red top. The thought suddenly stuck her that she had been shot but nothing ached anymore than it had already done. She couldn't find any visible wound. Then she heard a loud thump and saw a man land on the ground. Her eyes were tired and they refused to stay open any longer so she gave in and the world around her became a daze once more.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Everyone turned around to see where the gunshot had come from. Shocked eyes all fixed on the man who had been revealed to be an enemy just moment earlier. He looked shocked himself, like he hadn't planned to shoot their threat. Slowly he got himself back together and lowered the gun then he stepped back knowing that this was no longer his business. 

Seifer was the first to see where the bullet had landed and was relieved to find that it was inside the back of Rajin. He lifted his eyes up to see Quistis with his blood splashed on her top. She looked like she was losing consciousness and he quickly ran to catch her before she fell off the chair. 

The others were still shocked from the event that had just happened but Squall was the first to step forward to study the wounded man on the floor. Rajin was breathing heavy, obviously in pain from his injury but he looked like he wanted to say something. A slight grin formed on his lips and he began to say something. "You're…not going to get.. away..with..this.." 

"It doesn't look like there's much more you can do Rajin" Zell said stepping closer to him like Squall had done.

" You invalids" Rajin said in barely a whisper "I'm not the only one.. who knows. She'll be coming for….you".

Everyone exchanged confused looks but their eyes quickly returned to the dying man on the floor. His fast breathing slowed down and weakened until he was breathing no longer. 

Once they acknowledged that he was dead they turned back to the man who had shot Rajin. Irvine saw everyone giving him questioning looks but decided not to answer and instead began to walk away but was quickly stopped from walking when the door slammed shut by itself. He turned around to see Seifer glaring angrily at him "your not going anywhere until you prove to me that you had nothing to do with this" 

"It's a long story," Irvine said simply. He saw the anger build inside Seifer's eyes and by some sort of invisible force Irvine was flung against a wall. Gasping for breath he looked up at Seifer who was walking towards him.

"That's not a good enough answer" Seifer said, "Did you have something to do with this?"

 "Seifer leave him alone!" came Selphie's pleading voice from behind him. She saw him turn to face her.  

"Stay out of this Selphie, it has nothing to do with you," he said in a softer tone of voice.

"Yes, I know that's what you always say to me." She said with tears building up in her eyes but she refused to let them fall "I'm not going to stay out of this, not this time"

"You don't understand," he said simply.

"Please Selphie, its okay." Irvine said, he lifted his eyes towards Seifer "I think I can help you"

"Give me one reason why I should trust someone like you" Seifer said through gritted teeth. 

Irvine looked at him for a short time before replying "Because you don't have anyone else to trust" he said with a slight smirk knowing that he was right " you can't turn to anyone else for help, only yourselves" 

Seifer's glare softened and he turned to the others around him; Squall gave a slight nod, which Seifer understood meant he should trust this man. "What do you know?" he said turning to Irvine again.

"I know he had a close friendship with my boss. I've seen him around her a few times and it is he who told her to send me here. I think you should go see her."

"And does this person have a name?" Seifer asked still a little unsure about trusting him.

"Her names Fujin. I must worn you, she isn't easy to get information out of," he said.

Seifer sighed "Fine, but your coming with us because I still don't trust you"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The gentle sway of the train gave a relaxing feeling, which made Rinoa feel sleepy. She stared at the scenery rushing past her not really interested in anything. So much had happened in one night, so much she had learnt. The words that the man had told her seemed to keep running through her mind. Perhaps what he had said was true, she still didn't understand why. Why hadn't anyone told her about all of this? She was injected with mutant DNA to make her live? It seemed like some type of story you read in newspapers, about how scientists could do these amazing things to help people live. Would her mother really have turned to scientists to help her live? She knew thinking about it wouldn't give her an answer but she kept thinking of more and more questions that needed to be answered, by someone…anyone. 

She turned to look at Squall who was sat beside her; he seemed to be deep in thought himself, which brought a slight smile to her lips. How she had gotten herself in this situation was beyond her, but somehow she was here. Not knowing what to come of the future, in some ways not sure of the past. In these past few months she was starting to become like the other four mutants around her. Always surviving, the only thing keeping them going was their hope. She wasn't sure she'd be able to live the rest of her life that way. 

Authors note: Yes I know I'm still keeping you all hanging on and I'm sorry I haven't updated for ages! I have one more week of school then I have work experience. Two weeks and then I have six weeks off school and in them six weeks I hope to complete this fic as there are only a few chapters left and start my new fic.

Thank you to

Jenza

Phoenix Blade

Keiry

CTHKSI

Shattered sword

PlatinumKitty 


End file.
